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.

Ethics panel clears Gallego as Luna declares, ‘Once a creep, always a creep’

Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts Side with Liberal Justices on Key Election Integrity Case

Conservatives revolt after Trump-appointed Barrett joins liberals in ‘shockingly wrong’ mail ballot ruling

Netanyahu’s lawyers compare his treatment by court to Adolf Eichmann as yearslong trial could go to 2028

Judge delays trial for White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting suspect

Wife of Louis Farrakhan dead at 90

Who is Lisa Cook? The central bank governor at the heart of the Supreme Court’s Trump-Fed showdown

American Airlines flight aborts Miami takeoff after business jet enters runway

Luigi Mangione returns to court for jury selection hearing after reported plea deal falls apart

Deadly Palisades Fire Defendant’s Case Ends in Mistrial as Jury Remains Deadlocked

Banned Film About Anti-Islam Vigilante Is No. 1 on Amazon

Watch: Dems Trot Out Biden at Gala, But Now He Can’t Even Leave Podium Without Directions

Europeans Discover Simple Luxury As They Descend On US For World Cup

Fetterman Blasts His Own Party’s ‘Orgy of Socialism’ Primary Results

In Apple TV’s ‘Star City,’ Russians beat us to the moon

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.