Open border policy creates huge opportunities for human trafficking of young illegal immigrants | Commentary

The enormous implications of the open borders policy championed (until recently, after succumbing to political pressure) by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are difficult to fully comprehend.

One area that demands more attention — and outrage — is the growing tsunami of unaccompanied minors smuggled across the U.S.’s porous southern border each year.

Since the start of the Biden/Harris administration, more than 460,000 unaccompanied minors have been released to unrelated or distantly related sponsors in the United States. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was unable to locate more than 85,000 of these children. Less than 10 percent of children apprehended crossing the border are released to their parents.

What does all this mean?

Thanks to investigations by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and several public hearings in Congress, we now know that many of these lost children – nearly a quarter of all unaccompanied minors who have come to the southern border – are being exploited in the United States for labor or sex.

Deborah White, a former HHS representative, testified at one of the hearings that she believes the Biden/Harris administration’s emphasis on speed over proper safety measures has led to “taxpayer-funded child slavery.”

These are strong words, but what else are we to make of the fact that proper security measures, such as fingerprinting sponsors and conducting home visits before children are released, are often not observed?

Emma Waters, a senior research associate at the Richard and Helen DeVost Center for Life, Religion and Family, said evidence has emerged that many of the so-called sponsors of immigrant children have ties to gangs. Some children have been sent to the addresses of abandoned homes. In one case, more than 50 children were released to the same address.

“Far from caring for the poor and the orphaned, lax policies at the southern border exploit and harm unaccompanied minors smuggled into the United States,” Ms. Waters wrote recently. “Instead of providing safeguards and security at our border, the United States encourages child labor and sexual exploitation.”

Tara Rodas, another HHS whistleblower, has described how drug cartels are bringing children to the southern border “from Guatemala, El Salvador, all over Central and South America with smugglers.”

From there, “the smugglers give them the name and address of where they’re going, the children turn that over to Border Patrol, Border Patrol turns it over to us at HHS, and then we send the child to that person. It’s really an end-to-end delivery.”

This and other aspects of the open borders policy deserve thorough study and understanding before the November elections.

What we believe such an effort will demonstrate is that a strong and secure southern border is not cruel – as some liberals claim – but rather provides protection for both American citizens and illegal immigrants, especially children.