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.

BREAKING: Afghan Shooter Pleads Not Guilty to All Charges in National Guard Murder Case

Chip Roy Floats Congressional Action on College Football After Lane Kiffin Fiasco: ‘Isn’t Supposed to Be an NFL Lite’

Trump-backed Republican touts ‘great turnout for us’ in must-win special election for GOP

Senators vow push to prohibit US military action in Venezuela if Trump pursues strikes against the country

ICE nabs child rapists, gun-toting robbers as assaults on officers rise 1,153%

Venezuela land strikes will start ‘very soon,’ Trump says at final Cabinet meeting of the year

University of Delaware student accused of ‘frightening’ plot to attack campus police

Virginia GOP chairman stepping down after drastic losses in November elections

Treasury Department Investigating Apparent Taxpayer Funding of Terror Organization Under Biden and Walz

Trump says wounded National Guardsman’s mother has insisted to him that her son will survive shooting

Comer targets Walz in new House investigation, citing nearly $1B in alleged Minnesota fraud

Hakeem Jeffries Sides with Trump in Attempt to Drive a Wedge Between White House and Mike Johnson

Watch: Giants Kicker’s Bizarre Field Goal Blunder Leads to Confusion

Recordings of Brian Walshe played as prosecutors outline alleged love triangle murder

ICE Arrests Two Illegal Aliens for ‘Heinous Crimes Against Children’

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.