Smugglers Targeting Migrant Children with Drugs and Exploitation at Southern Border

Border Patrol agents are raising alarm about the increased exploitation of migrant children at the southern U.S. border, where smugglers are drugging and “recycling” minors to manipulate entry processes. Recent reports highlight how children as young as 8 years old are being repeatedly used by smugglers, posing as family units to gain access to the U.S.

According to The New York Post, Border Patrol sources have recently rescued several drugged children. In one shocking case, a woman traveling with two minors, ages 8 and 11, was found to have sedated the children with sleeping pills. Despite her attempts to pass as their mother, birth certificates she presented did not belong to the children in her care. Another child, heavily dosed with sleep aids, was discovered with traffickers holding birth certificates for different minors, a common tactic used by smugglers to avoid detection.

Agents have identified an unsettling trend of smugglers “recycling” children, using them multiple times with different adults to pose as family units. “I hate thinking about it, because there were thousands of kids, and who knows where they all ended up,” one Border Patrol source said, expressing deep concern over the fate of these children. At the height of a migrant influx, agents reported seeing the same children cycling through the border multiple times with different “parents.”

The abuse of migrant children by cartels is not new, but the scale of exploitation is staggering. Children are often forced to wear wristbands corresponding to the amount of money their families owe the cartels for smuggling services. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been vocal about this issue, highlighting the wristbands as a form of modern-day slavery. “Every color corresponds to how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels,” Cruz said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He accused the Biden administration of turning these cartels into multibillion-dollar criminal enterprises that profit from trafficking human lives, especially vulnerable children.

The problem doesn’t end at the border. Migrant children placed with sponsors in the U.S. are also facing exploitation. Reports from Muckraker reveal firsthand accounts of minors forced into abusive conditions. One minor shared how her sponsor demanded $10,000 for taking her in, while another described being kicked out by her sponsor if she failed to pay rent. These tragic stories echo the growing concerns about the safety and well-being of unaccompanied migrant children after they enter the U.S.

This crisis has intensified under the Biden-Harris administration, with a growing number of unaccompanied children becoming lost in the system. Last year, it was reported that 85,000 children were unaccounted for by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Today, that number has ballooned to an estimated 320,000.

Republicans argue that the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is overwhelmed and has been prioritizing the rapid release of migrant children over their safety. Despite these concerns, Senate Democrats are pushing to loosen oversight of child migrant sponsorship. The proposed "Children’s Safe Welcome Act of 2024" would require HHS to make decisions about child sponsorship within just seven days, a move that critics say could further endanger these vulnerable children.

As the crisis at the southern border continues to escalate, it’s clear that more must be done to protect migrant children from the horrors of trafficking, exploitation, and abuse.

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