An asylum-seeking family takes a cab to the airport after being released by U.S. immigration authorities to continue their travels within the United States in Brownsville, Texas, Feb. 24, 2021.
During the 2019 border crisis, adults crossing the border illegally with unrelated children in an attempt to enter the U.S. quickly became a major problem. Border experts warn that all signs are resurfacing again this year.
In one case in 2019, a Honduran man purchased a 6-month-old baby in Guatemala to pose as a family and gain priority for release. In another case, criminal groups constructed a mechanism to repeatedly rent and recover children between Houston and Mexico.
At the time, the Department of Homeland Security set up rapid DNA testing, which revealed that up to 30 percent of immigrant families in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley, Texas, districts were impostors.
In mid-April 2019, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sent 400 agents to the two districts to question families that Border Patrol suspected were fakes. Over an eight-week period, HSI agents identified 5,500 counterfeit families, representing approximately 15 percent of all referrals.
According to Kevin McAleenan, who was acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the time, agents found 921 fraudulent documents and 615 people were charged with trafficking or smuggling children.
“What this tells me is that we may have only scratched the surface of this problem, and the number of children at risk may be higher.” McAleenan said at a congressional hearing on July 18, 2019.
He said the cost of renting a child can range from less than $100 to more than $1,000.
“Everybody knows that if they take their child, they’re allowed to stay in the U.S. They call it an ‘immigration passport.'” McAleenan said at the time.
During May 2019, the height of the crisis, the Border Patrol arrested more than 84,000 illegal immigrants in family units.
In 2014, less than 1 percent of all adult men arrested by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had children with them. By 2019, that number increases to 50 percent, said Rodolfo Karisch, the district’s former chief Border Patrol agent.
Former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Director Mark Morgan speaks at a March 30, 2021, news conference in Michen, Germany.
Another surge of illegal immigrant families in 2021
The number of illegal immigrant families apprehended by Border Patrol is now increasing dramatically each month.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), nearly 19,000 illegal immigrant family members were apprehended by Border Patrol in February. That number was more than twice as high as in January, and the number was even higher in March.
Border facilities are so overwhelmed that in some regions, some illegal immigrant families are being released into the U.S. without being notified to appear in immigration court.
Former CBP acting director Mark Morgan said he believes there are already children being rented to adults at this point, but the situation will get worse.
“I think it’s happening right now. As to how big it is, I don’t know.” Morgan said March 30. Morgan is currently a senior fellow at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAR).
Morgan believes that more resources must be devoted to identifying fake illegal immigrant families.
“My understanding is that in the face of the same surge, we’re going to have to devote the same amount of resources as we did in 2019 to actually find and identify the counterfeit families,” Morgan said, “and at the end of the day, they can’t determine exactly who these people are every time.”
Morgan predicts that once the government stops deporting illegal immigrant families under Title 42 of the U.S. Code (Title 42) public defense emergency restrictions, which are still in use in some border areas, the number of unaccompanied minors will decrease and illegal immigrant families will increase.
“That’s the moment we should really be worried about. That’s when ICE should be deploying a lot of resources there because … that’s when we’re really going to see abuse happen.” He said.
Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan speaks at a March 30, 2021, news conference in Michen, Germany.
Former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan said the Biden administration did not implement widespread DNA testing.
“When I was ICE director, we had criminal investigations where smuggling rings would rent children to pose as immigrant families. Once they were released, (the children) would be sent back to Mexico to be re-rented again. This happened all the time.” Homan said March 30.
“No one is looking forward to the start of this presidency more than the criminal gangs in Mexico. I’m tired of them saying they’re humane. It’s quite dangerous when you release inducements to put the most vulnerable people into the arms of criminal groups.”
The Epoch Times repeatedly reached out to DHS and CBP officials to ask them to outline what steps are being taken to ensure the authenticity of immigrant families. However, as of press time, no response had been received.
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