Reports Reveal Smugglers Are Drugging And Exploiting Migrant Children

An alarming new report reveals that smugglers are increasingly exploiting and drugging migrant children at the U.S. southern border, with one recent rescue involving a heavily drugged 8-year-old.

Border Patrol agents have raised concerns over this troubling trend, as smugglers use children as young as 8 in dangerous schemes. According to sources cited by the New York Post, authorities have rescued numerous children from smugglers in recent weeks.

In one case, a woman posing as the mother of two children, ages 8 and 11, was found to have drugged the minors with sleeping pills. The birth certificates she presented to U.S. officials were not for the children she was traveling with, exposing her attempt to deceive authorities.

In another instance, a child was rescued after being heavily dosed with sleep aids to prevent him from speaking to authorities. Smugglers, in these situations, often carry falsified documents for different children.

Border Patrol agents say traffickers are increasingly “recycling” children, repeatedly using them to pose as family units to gain entry into the U.S. One agent recalled, “At the height of an immigration influx, we had to let family units in. After a while, we started noticing the same children cycling through with different ‘parents.’” He added, “I hate thinking about it, because there were thousands of kids, and who knows where they all ended up.”

For years, reports have surfaced of migrants wearing wristbands to track how much money they owe cartels for facilitating their journey to the U.S. This exploitation particularly affects children, and lawmakers have called for stricter border security in response.

“Along the southern border, you see thousands of these wristbands because the illegal immigrants wear them,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year. “Every color corresponds to how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels… You have turned these cartels into multibillion-dollar criminal organizations. And these are modern-day leg irons because these are children being sold into sex slavery.”

Senator Cruz fiercely criticized Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, asking, “What are these wristbands? … These are modern-day leg irons because these are children being sold into sex slavery, and you don’t even know what they are.”

Reports have also emerged of migrant children being exploited after being placed with sponsors through the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. In a video released by Muckraker, young migrants described their hardships. One minor shared how her sponsor forced her to pay $10,000 in return for providing shelter, while another girl, who ended up homeless, said, “She would tell me that if I didn’t have money for rent, she would kick me out. And to this day, she’s still charging me $4,000 for my trip from Honduras.”

The issue has grown so severe that 320,000 migrant children are now estimated to be unaccounted for after being placed with sponsors by the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). This is a significant jump from the 85,000 unaccompanied children reported missing last year.

Republicans have accused the ORR of prioritizing the rapid release of children over their safety due to the overwhelming number of migrants. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are pushing to loosen oversight of child migrant sponsorship through the “Children’s Safe Welcome Act of 2024,” which would require HHS to make a decision on a sponsor within seven days of receiving an application.