The catastrophic crisis at the U.S. southern border continues as President Joe Biden refuses to put policies in place to cut down on human and sex trafficking, particularly of children.
During a visit to the border this week, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz recounted what he saw.
"I witnessed a haunting experience on my most recent visit to the border. There was a 35-year-old man with a 10-year-old little girl. He said he was her father, but it was obvious he was lying. His arms were grabbing her so tightly, holding her so she could not run away," Cruz wrote on Twitter. "Every supporter of open borders should have seen the look of terror on that little girl's face. She was so frightened."
"Tragically, there is nothing Border Patrol could do under Joe Biden's policies. They had to process them and then release them into the country," Cruz continued. "Under President Trump, the Border Patrol would have done DNA testing to ensure that the man was actually the girl's father, but Joe Biden did away with this policy."
For years, Biden's policies, which mandate "parents" stay with "their" children, have enabled pedophiles and abusers to claim they are parents or guardians without verification.
WARNING: GRAPHIC SUBJECT MATTER
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 31, 2021
Harrowing stories of sexual abuse are among some of what Oscar Escamilla, a U.S. Border Patrol official, says ‘hit hard’ as he details what some of the unaccompanied migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border have told him https://t.co/aLb7eV7Crz pic.twitter.com/QZg0Eo27Zw
President Trump instituted adult and child separate policies, along with DNA testing, to fight against this scourge. As Townhall reported in 2018:
The question of a valid parental-child relationship is at the center of how the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services handle detainment. Because of fraudulent documentation, profits to smugglers, and false asylum claims, there is essentially no way to prove or verify adults traveling with children are indeed their parents.
In April 2016, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley warned about catch-and-release policies enabling the smuggling industry. In the past, any non-Mexican or Canadian individual illegally crossing the border with a child was considered a family unit, processed and released into the interior. Current zero-tolerance policies require they be detained until prosecution.
“A recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report confirmed that human smuggling rings are exploiting children in order to prevent the detention of the undocumented immigrants they’re smuggling into the United States. They are pairing children with unrelated adults, knowing adults who enter the United States with children won’t be detained,” he said.
“At least one Honduran interviewed by DHS officials reported that children are kidnapped or adopted then smuggled with their unrelated adult “family member” to the United States. This smuggling practice has bolstered an underground market for counterfeit birth certificates according to the report, which was prepared by the DHS Human Smuggling Cell. Once in the U.S., these children are vulnerable to labor or sex trafficking,” he continued.
Meanwhile, the number of single adult males pouring into the country has not ceased.
With 600,000 + KNOWN gotaways reported for FY23. This number is much higher as gotaways are an estimation based on camera images, sensor activations, & foot tracks, not including the UNKNOWN who make it into the interior undetected due to lack of technology & manpower in remote… https://t.co/GBrkydfVh5 pic.twitter.com/BWDtj6K25x
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) October 31, 2023