Border Patrol agents are raising alarms about a disturbing trend in which children as young as 8 are being drugged and smuggled into the U.S. by traffickers pretending to be their parents or relatives. The extent of this practice is still largely unknown.
In recent weeks, authorities have intercepted children in two separate instances of this smuggling tactic. In one case, traffickers were found carrying birth certificates for multiple children to whom they had no relation, according to Border Patrol officials.
Sources within the Border Patrol have told The Post that smugglers are increasingly posing as family units to “recycle” children.
“A few years ago, when they were coming in en masse, we had to let family units in. People kept coming in, and after a while, we noticed the kids were the same, but the parents were different. They were recycling the kids,” one Border Patrol source revealed to The Post.
The source expressed deep concern about the fate of these children, saying, “I hate thinking about it because there were thousands of kids and who knows where they all ended up.”
Authorities admit that once these children enter the U.S., their fate is uncertain. Many of them are at risk of being exploited for child labor or sex trafficking.
The situation has shocked Border Patrol leaders. Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol chief of California’s El Centro sector, expressed his horror at the criminal activities, stating, “Sometimes we encounter criminal actions so horrendous, they defy human decency.”
One case involved agents at the California border rescuing a child who had been heavily drugged with sleep aids to prevent him from speaking with authorities, Bovino confirmed on Friday. The traffickers in this instance were also found to be in possession of birth certificates for other children.
Just a few weeks earlier, on August 29, officers at a port of entry in San Luis, Arizona, apprehended 28-year-old U.S. citizen Marlen Contreras-Lopez, who was transporting two drugged children in her vehicle, according to federal prosecutors.
Initially, Contreras-Lopez claimed a family connection to the children and attempted to rouse them during questioning. Court documents reveal that when she exited the car for further inspection, one of the children had to be carried, while the other struggled to walk.
“The woman had difficulty waking the children. Officers observed that the children remained extremely groggy. While interviewing the children, officers soon discovered there was no family relationship between the woman and the two minors, ages 11 and 8,” explained Diane J. Sabatino, Executive Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations, in a post on X.
Contreras-Lopez presented officers with legitimate birth certificates, but they did not match the children in her care, Sabatino added.
The children later told officers they had been given sleep aids, which were found in the vehicle, “in order to avoid detection,” according to court records.
One of the children, a girl, said she and her brother, both from the southern Mexican state of Michoacan, had traveled by bus to the border town of San Luis Rio Colorado. Contreras-Lopez then picked them up, and they were being sent to their mother’s boyfriend in the U.S. Their mother remained in Mexico.
Contreras-Lopez now faces smuggling charges, and the two children have been turned over to Mexican authorities.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the number of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border without relatives has surged. Thousands of these children have gone missing after being released to sponsors in the U.S., who whistleblowers claim are not properly vetted.
As of May 2024, 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children had been released to sponsors but were never ordered to appear in court, resulting in a loss of contact with federal authorities. Additionally, 32,000 children who were released have since failed to show up for their court hearings, as detailed in a 14-page report covering the period from October 2018 to September 2023.
Source: NY Post
