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.

Spencer Pratt’s Los Angeles mayor run ends in defeat, but the spotlight stays on

Toledo police name suspect Ka Nye Taylor in festival shooting that injured 12, hunt second gunman

Prosecutors won’t seek death penalty in Minnesota Democrat’s assassination

Ohio approves nearly billion dollar payment after court ruled state shortchanged nursing homes

Minnesota man marks FBI’s first arrest from DOJ’s ‘Most Wanted Fraudsters’ list

Musk’s xAI and SpaceX sued over ‘inescapable’ noise from data center plant

‘He Was Licking His Lips With the Blood’ – Witness to Would-Be Beheading in N. Ireland Shares Grotesque Details

House Dem lashes out at GOP efforts to probe foreign donations with stunning claim on motive

Undefeated lacrosse team’s championship dreams end in controversy after players punished over fake cigars

Video: Christian Coffee Shop Hosts Worship as Vicious Trans Activists Scream, Attack Right Outside Their Door

Trump Says US Has Gotten ‘Millions of Barrels’ of Oil Through the Strait of Hormuz ‘Every Night,’ and Iran Just Realized

Fact Check: Did California Officials Catch a Republican Woman Registering Her Dog to Vote?

‘Squad’ Dem dismisses fraud probe speculation after $29M net-worth drop

UPDATE: Victim in Would-Be Beheading Is ‘Vulnerable’ Person with Disabilities, According to Neighbors

BREAKING ALERT: US Launches Significant New Strikes Against Iran, Hegseth Warns Will Be ‘Busy Tonight’

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.