More than 600 Children ‘Recycled’ by Migrant Smugglers At Border: ICE

More than 600 children were “recycled” through the border over the last year, including some who were carried across eight times, by a different person each time, looking to exploit lax policies to gain a foothold in the U.S., a top ICE official told Congress on Wednesday.

And those are only cases that were detected, officials said.

The recycled children are one of the more disturbing aspects of illegal border flow over the last 12 months, which set records for the number of children and families who snuck into the U.S.

The families were drawn by a lax policy, imposed by a federal court, that gives adults a quick release into communities as long as they brought a son or daughter with them.

The result was massive levels of fraud, with adults renting or outright buying unrelated children in order to present themselves as a family, authorities said. In some cases it was a one-off, but in other instances children were “recycled” across the border multiple times, said Derek N. Benner, acting deputy director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We’ve identified over 600 children that have been recycled,” he said.

Report: Jimmy Kimmel’s Current Season Will Be His Last at ABC

We Must Stop China’s ‘Surveillance Machines’ from Flooding the US Car Market at All Cost

Proposal would pay homeowners ‘data center dividends’ to counter growing backlash

Fmr Biden ambassador blames Trump for Canada playing ‘footsie’ with China

Accused wife killer Barry Morphew back behind bars after separate incident that skyrocketed bond: prosecutors

Amazon cargo jet pilot reportedly told wife, ‘My career is over’ shortly after deadly crash

Watch: Lindsay Clancy Jurors Accidentally Admit They Made Their Decision Based on the Wrong Criteria

Art Garfunkel Says He’s Contemplating Leaving America Because of Trump

Oil hits $100 per barrel after US hit Iranian tankers near Strait of Hormuz

EXCLUSIVE — Newsom’s hard truth for Democrats: ‘It’s our performance’

Trump hails ‘really big night’ for populists in German election after historic victory

Supreme Court chief justice praises outgoing Smithsonian leader who was under pressure from Trump admin

Who were the key figures in the Bush administration on 9/11, and where are they now

George Bush welcomes top officials to his home state for 9/11 remembrance on 25th anniversary of attacks

Socialist politicians are ‘more racist than the KKK,’ says Black Dem official urging voters to ditch El-Sayed

That means that once they came across with an unrelated adult, they were then separated by the smuggling operation and taken back south across the border to be brought back again with a new adult, he said.

“Some of them had indicated they’ve made the trip as many as eight times, with separate, unrelated adults each time,” he added.

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner at Customs and Border Protection, recounted one case where they caught a Honduran man who’d “bought a child” for $80, then attempted to cross into the U.S.

“Why did he do it? Because the loopholes in our system told him — and the smugglers made sure he understood — ‘You grab a child, that’s your passport into the United States,’” Mr. Morgan told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. Benner detailed another case where a Guatemalan man showed up at the border with a girl he claimed to be his daughter. Authorities didn’t immediately sniff out the fake relationship and under the lax U.S. policies toward families the man and girl were released.

The girl was “repeatedly” sexually abused and beaten, until she was finally rescued, Mr. Benner said.

ICE began in the spring to use DNA testing to try to weed out fraudulent families at the border.

That involved taking people who presented as families, but where suspicions were raised, and testing DNA to try to confirm the purported relationship. At the height, Mr. Benner said, about a quarter of the cases tested came back as fake families.

Cartels began to adjust their strategies and the rate is now 13% to 15%, he said.