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.

Byron Donalds urges conservatives to ‘focus on the mission’ at AmericaFest after 2025 setbacks

Vance says ‘America First’ movement rejects ‘purity tests,’ welcomes critical thinkers

Fetterman Rips Into Fellow Democrats After Anti-Semitic Australia Shooting: ‘A Rot Within the American Left’

Illegal Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Strangling ICE Agent

US Coast Guard pursues third ‘dark fleet’ oil tanker as Trump targets Venezuelan sanctions evasion network

Fisherman survives near-fatal shark attack with own lifesaving care, instincts that kept him alive

Rapper Nicki Minaj teams up with new Turning Point USA leader Erika Kirk for Q&A session

MTG tells her successor not to ‘bow in loyalty’ to White House and GOP

Police Safely Capture Rogue Kangaroo Running Wild … in Oklahoma

Former Brown University student and friend to Ella Cook blames ‘spending priorities’ for lack of security

California Drive-By Targets Jewish Family’s Hanukkah Display Just 2 Days Before Bondi Beach Massacre

AmericaFest honors Target employee Jeanie Beeman after viral video shows calm response to harassment

DNI Gabbard warns ‘Islamist ideology’ threatens Western freedom at AmFest

Jillian Michaels Leaves NYT Race-Baiter Stunned and Confused With Quick Retort: ‘You Know I’m Arab, Right?’

Amazon Apologizes After Delivery Driver Drops Off Package, Allegedly Steals Homeowner’s Cat

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.