U.S. Holding 14,000 Minors at the Border, as Smuggling Cartels, Human Traffickers Benefit

March 19 , 2021 (EIRNS)—The report from several media that there are now 14,000 unaccompanied minors being held at detention centers at the U.S.-Mexican border—with 117,000 more expected in the course of this year— is just the tip of a major crisis that the Biden administration insists on calling a “challenge.”

As EIR News Service documented last week, Dope, Inc.’s drug cartels and human traffickers are making a killing arranging the transport of desperate Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Hondurans and Mexicans—or their children—into the U.S.

In an interview with Breitbart last week, reported today by One America News (OANN), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), pointed directly to the role of drug cartels in moving humans along the border for profit and charged that the Biden administration’s “mixed message” on immigration is encouraging the traffickers. The cartels are being empowered by a non-policy, he said, “allowing them to make more money moving people, and we’re seeing the abuse of people increase with more people driving up to the border.” Children are especially vulnerable to exploitation, he warned. There is nothing “compassionate” about this policy.

Central American parents and families are paying large amounts of money to have their unaccompanied children smuggled across the border. The Guardian today recounted the case of one young woman detained at the border who was wearing two plastic wrist bands, one red, the other white, which, according to some reports, are used by smugglers to confirm payments had been made to organized-crime groups who control the border. In an interview today with OANN, Yaco Boohens, who is known for his work combatting child sex-trafficking, warned that the surge of unaccompanied minors coming across the border creates a situation ripe for human trafficking and child abuse. Most of these minors have no identification papers or documented medical history, are malnourished or poorly fed and are not tested for COVID or any other diseases. Their families pay to have them smuggled hundreds of miles, which in itself is child endangerment. Speaking only Spanish, where will they be placed in the U.S.? In the overburdened foster care system? With unknown “sponsors”? “Who will protect them from those who prey on vulnerable children?” Boohens asks.