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A new video reveals the physical and emotional damage suffered by children abandoned at the southern border of the United States in the hands of human traffickers who, in the face of the immigration crisis, take advantage of Joe Biden’s “open borders” policies to commit crimes at the expense of children.
In a video published by the head of the El Paso border section, Gloria Chavez, it could be seen how unscrupulous men threw two girls from the four-meter fence that marks the border between the United States and Mexico.
The two Ecuadorian girls, aged three and five, were abandoned and later rescued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“I am appalled at the way traffickers viciously threw innocent minors off a 14-foot barrier last night,” Chavez said.
“If not for the vigilance of our agents using mobile technology, these two very tender-aged sisters would have been left exposed to the harsh desert conditions for hours,” she added on Twitter.
The increase in the number of children arriving unaccompained has been described as “alarming” to the point where authorities claim that between 250 and 300 unaccompanied children cross daily.
The White House admitted Tuesday, March 30, that there are more children crossing the border than the government can receive at its facilities.
According to CBP figures, in February border authorities intercepted 9,457 minors at the border, a 60% increase over January (5,858).
This Wednesday, March 31, the Chief of Migration of Honduras said that minors are victims of trafficking.
Their parents pay to take their children clandestinely in the hope that they will be guarded by U.S. authorities, and later handed over to relatives residing in the U.S.
“A child en route or at the border is a crisis because there is a person who is putting his or her life at risk and above all a minor who has not decided to take that migratory route, but rather his or her parents,” Carolina Menjívar, director of the Honduran National Migration Institute (INM), told EFE.
The increase of children can be attributed to the “open borders” policies of President Biden who has assured that he would not expel minors arriving alone from the country and that their cases would be processed quickly in U.S. territory.
“These trips paid to ‘coyotes’ cost thousands of dollars and are paid for, in most cases, by relatives of the minors residing in the United States,” notes a report by France 24.
The report also points out that the smugglers, “who offer alternative travel plans and routes, are using the children as decoys in drug trafficking operations”.
As of February, 14,000 minors have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone and are now in the custody of government agencies. Of these, some 9,000 remain in the care of the Department of Health, while the Border Patrol is still holding more than 5,100 unaccompanied minors.
The media gained access to one of the border facilities on Tuesday, March 30, where it was observed that the tents were overcrowded to the point of holding 16 times more migrants than their capacity.
“The capsules designed to accommodate 32 children were grossly overcrowded, and one housed more than 600 unaccompanied teenagers,” noted the CBS report.
What does the U.S. do with the overwhelming number of children at the border?
Once intercepted by the border authority, the children are transferred to cells administered by Customs and Border Patrol for a maximum period of 72 hours established by law; this time frame could not be met by the authorities due to the lack of facilities to house the children.
After the detention period has expired, responsibility for the children is left in the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Each child is assigned a social worker while the authorities are responsible for screening the families who will take in the children and then adjudicating their cases in immigration court.
During the process, the U.S. government guarantees them housing and care, including education, until they are released to relatives in the country or other representatives.
According to the highest immigration authority, Alejandro Mayorkas, the children spend an average of one month in this type of facility.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo