How else can you see it? Biden’s misplaced border policies and interpretation of Title 42 – encouraging mass, unaccompanied child trafficking, exploitation, sexual, emotional, and psychological endangerment of children – are facilitating abuse of minors. Why should Biden-Harris be given a pass, not be held accountable? How can America promote such policies?
President Trump restricted entry to the United States, advanced a wall, opposed illegal migration regardless of age, insisted on enforcing the law on the Southwest border, deported criminal aliens, opposed sanctuary cities, and caused those claiming asylum to await adjudication in a third country – Mexico – rather than enjoying “catch and release,” creating hidden US residence.
These policies established deterrence. Risks got higher, rewards lower, and migrant caravans, mass trafficking of humans, markedly declined. President Biden, for reasons hard to square with constitutional or statute law, reversed these policies.
Harder to square and deeply disturbing is the moral depravity, human trafficking, child exploitation impact of Biden-Harris’s anti-deterrence policies. Bad acts, bad numbers, and the terrible shadow of preventable abuse were entirely predictable – but numbers make the case.
Start with the overall explosion of destitute humans – non-US citizens, a significant percentage of unaccompanied children – now surging across the US southern border. After President Biden declared he would stop building a border wall, end treaty obligations with Mexico for holding asylum seekers, halt deportations, reinitiate “catch and release,” and house unaccompanied minors – eventually in homes around the US, border crossers went through the roof.
Since Biden took office, just under half a million illegal aliens – a term Biden canceled for federal employees – have surged at the US border. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) encountered 172,000 migrants in March alone, a 71 percent increase over February, which saw more than 100,000 illegal aliens crossing. These are the highest numbers in 15 years, with projections spiking in April and May.
Of those encountered, a majority are single adults. However, in March alone, 18,890 unaccompanied children arrived. The word is out. That is a 100 percent increase over high February numbers. Notably, 98 percent of intercepts are not at ports of entry, but between them – meaning these are not aliens confident in a legal claim but boldly seeking illegal entry.
Stunningly, while single adults and family units illegally crossing can be returned under Title 42 for public health reasons, and a large percentage are COVID-positive, the White House has not followed the law. When Mexico refuses to take back certain families, Biden-Harris retains them.
Moreover, contrary to Biden’s rhetoric, more than half of the 19,000 family units intercepted in February “were not expelled, with many released into the United States to pursue immigration court cases.” Only 15 percent caught as of a mid-March date were expelled. See, e.g., https://www.newsmax.com/politics/border/2021/03/25/id/1015203/; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/stephen-miller-joe-biden-has-shut-down-ice-leading-to-a-travesty-at-the-southern-border.
But the kicker is Biden-Harris’ implicit promotion of human trafficking, specifically in unaccompanied minors. There is no other way to see these policies but as knowingly promoting human trafficking – and abuse of unaccompanied minors in transit and in holding pens.
Determined to reverse anything with Trump’s name, perhaps also seeding an underclass of illegal dependents on the government who would leftist leaders in future elections, Biden-Harris seem indifferent to the extraordinary human rights abuses being daily inflicted on these foreign children.
On the numbers, Biden DHS leaders project record unaccompanied minors arriving in 2021 will break all records – by at least 45 percent. See, e.g., https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/migrant-children-border-crossings-to-surpass-record-by-45-percent-report/. These numbers cannot be viewed as manageable or in isolation. A proportionate increase in measurable harm – from fear, deprivation, death, and abuse – follows in train.
Use logic, as well as data. These children are traveling 3000 miles alone, in the hands of the same traffickers who deal in illegal drugs, most petrified, exhausted, famished, many arriving with bruises, diseases, physiological and psychological trauma, indications of sexual abuse, potentially permanent emotional scarring. If these impacts sound disturbing, they should. For liberals who claim bleeding hearts, this kind of abuse promotion should be arresting. Yet where are the voices saying – reverse these pro-trafficking policies? See, e.g., https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/5/biden-increases-migrant-childrens-woes-at-the-sout/.
While verified numbers of overall child trafficking and abuse are elusive, they are understood to be substantial. While young children are trafficked, three-quarters of those responding to the policy pull are ages 15 and 17, according to March 2021 data. See, https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/03/05/data-shows-most-migrant-children-teenagers-seeking-jobs/. Additionally, 66 percent of child trafficking victims globally are girls, and 99 percent of those trafficked for sexual exploitation are women and girls. See, https://www.worldschildren.org/child-trafficking-statistics/.
As the number of illegal minors continues to grow, facilities are being overrun, background checks on contractors are suspended, propensity for abuse is rising. The problem continues to raise risks and costs. In March alone, Biden set up eight emergency holding sites, adding 15,000 beds, doubling present capacity. Taxpayer costs are estimated at $775 per child per day. See, e.g., https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2021/03/27/border-crisis-gets-worse-as-biden-ships-illegal-aliens-further-inland-to-reduce-overcrowding-dhs-contractors-no-longer-need-background-checks-for-custodial-care-of-minors/; https://cbs12.com/news/nation-world/us-waives-fbi-checks-on-caregivers-at-new-migrant-facilities.
Second- and third-order implications of this major policy mistake continue to register. Beyond increasing reports of child abuse in transit and holding facilities, the policy is enriching human and drug traffickers, placing more young Americans at risk for addiction and overdose via increased drug trafficking. Numbers are staggering. See, e.g., https://dailycaller.com/2021/04/05/patriots-drug-trafficking-immigration-us-mexico-border/; https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/border-crime/mexican-cartels-sending-more-hard-drugs-across-the-border-cbp-acting-commissioner-says/.
Finally, as hard to fathom as the Biden-Harris open invitation to minors is their non-response to the mounting data. The administration is not stopping this patently failed approach, even as governors – like Greg Abbot in Texas – plead for humanity and a shutdown of the policy, facilities, and radiating damage. See, https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/07/greg-abbott-migrant-children-texas/; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/texas-gov-abbott-calls-to-end-san-antonio-migrant-children-housing-facility-reports-of-sexual-assault.
The latest is irony too rich, incompetence too transparent. Biden appointed Harris to oversee the border “challenge,” which no one is willing to identify as a crisis. She has twice devolved into giggling fits and refused to visit the border or holding facilities. Now the President’s border czar has resigned.
See, e.g., https://dbdailyupdate.com/2021/03/23/tuesday-news-roundup-biden-sleeps-harris-giggles-as-the-texas-border-with-mexico-burns/; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kamala-harris-visit-border-no-trip-scheduled-vp-immigration; https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-border-roberta-jacobson-step.
So, tally all the morally disturbing data, the number of young lives endangered, suspension of federal laws, then draw a straight line to the Biden-Harris policies and administration inaction – and what do you get?
Answer: Biden and Harris are irresponsibly encouraging mass trafficking of unaccompanied minors – putting them in danger. These policies are measurably contributing to abuse while elevating citizen health risks. Why are they not held accountable? The time is now. Reality is hard to avert. Biden and Harris are responsible for this mess. They need to reverse failing policies – and start leading like they care.