Data collected between February of 2021 and January of 2024 revealed “464,922 [unaccompanied] children have been encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection police nationwide.” Some experts, such as those from the child immigrant aid organization Kids in Need of Defense, have explained this surplus of unaccompanied minors was “expected” and likely due to “U.S. measures implemented at the border during the coronavirus pandemic.” But what is shocking, experts have gone on to point out, is how the whereabouts of thousands of these children are unknown, with the biggest concern being that many are becoming victims of human trafficking.

These concerns flooded the mainstream media as whistleblowers testified in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday. The accusation laid forth is that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Labor are guilty “of covering up how the government and contracted companies have failed to properly care for 500,000 parentless immigrant children in government custody at the border,” the Washington Examiner reported.

Acknowledging the outcry, HHS Secretary Xavier Bacerra said, “No child has gone missing under our watch.” But Allison Dyer pointed out on X that not only is Bacerra’s statement false, but she used information collected by a New York Times report to highlight that “85,000 unaccompanied children released to sponsors in the United States by our government are unable to be accounted for,” meaning “their whereabouts or welfare are unknown.”

Emphasizing a point similar to Dyer, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, argued that the claims that these children are not unaccounted for shows a “blatant lack of transparency with the American people.” He added, “Frankly, it is hard to see this as anything other than an effort to cover up and shield the Biden administration from scrutiny for its mistreatment and mishandling of unaccompanied children, particularly in an election year where the president is behind in the polls.”

HHS whistleblower Deborah White described the circumstances as “taxpayer-funded child slavery,” and she noted that part of what led to this was the government “prioritizing speed over safety.” As a result, she stated, children are being sent to abandoned houses, unsafe homes, and even one case in which “a child was sent to an open field,” which only further proves the lack of integrity of the system. White said that even after several concerns were raised, nothing was done to stop children from being sent to dangerous locations.

“[I]t’s unbelievable that we’re … talking about government-sponsored, taxpayer funded child trafficking,” said Tara Rodas on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” Rodas, who formerly worked for the Department of Health and Human Services and testified on Tuesday, explained how she and some of her “colleagues began reporting trafficking cases in June of 2021.” She sighed, “So, if you can imagine, it’s been more than three years” since those first reports.

Rodas emphasized how their efforts were received better “in the beginning, and [we] thought they were going to do something about it.” However, over time, they were threatened and warned from “coming forward to speak the truth.” And “this is not just one incident,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out, further noting that she “began to see … patterns.”

Rodas explained that what it boils down to is a system that is not organized or monitored well. “So,” she continued, “you can imagine how easily a system like that is exploited.” The process, she described, is that children are brought across the southern border “from Guatemala, El Salvador, all over Central and South America with smugglers.” Then, “the smugglers give them the name and address to where they’re going, the children turn that into Border Patrol, Border patrol turns it over to us at HHS, and then we send the child to that person. It’s really end-to-end delivery.”

And the issue with this, as Perkins noted, is that there’s “no verification of relationship, family connection or anything” to ensure these children end up in a safe place. Again, he contended, “[T]his is being funded by tax dollars. I mean, we’re bringing these children to this country and allowing them to be exploited. This is … horrific.”

In many cases, Rodas explained that what leads children to these horrible homes is the fact that “there is no ultimate verification because” the government “did not even verify if the person was a legal permanent resident.” But ultimately, she insisted, no sensible “child welfare organization around the globe would send a child to an unknown person. … That doesn’t even make sense. And yet, that’s what the government is doing.” However, Rodas concluded that sitting idle is not an option. “There are children in crisis now, and we need to rescue” them.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

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As the nation’s largest southern border crossings finally receive mainstream media coverage years into an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis, untold numbers of “fighting age males” dressed in military uniforms are entering the United States through remote areas with no Border Patrol presence. It is a palpable security lapse unlikely to be reported by most news outlets and local, federal, and state law enforcement sources have provided Judicial Watch with detailed accounts, reports, diagrams, and photos of the situation which is terrorizing residents in a once harmonious Arizona town just a few miles from Mexico. They blame the Biden administration’s catastrophic open border policies for the serious problems that have gripped the area in the last few years.

The Santa Cruz and Pima County regions in southwestern Arizona have been slammed with extraordinary violence and crime fueled by Mexican cartels—smuggling drugs and humans—that are victimizing fourth and fifth-generation cattle farmers who have captured thousands of illegal immigrants on security cameras passing through their property since Joe Biden became president. Sometimes they find dead bodies and drug paraphernalia. “Violent activity has drastically increased over the past three years since the border is now perceived to be wide open,” a veteran law enforcement official told Judicial Watch this week, adding that in the communities of Amado and Arivaca American citizens feel much less safe than they did when Donald Trump was president. Both are cattle ranching towns with small populations that are diminishing because of the increased violence. Amado is nestled in the Santa Cruz River Valley about 29 miles from the Mexican border. Arivaca is situated southwest of Amado about 11 miles from Nogales, Mexico.

An unmanned Border Patrol checkpoint east of Arivaca worries residents deeply, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no intention of deploying agents, according to multiple sources. In the meantime, law enforcement officials and residents confirm that young men are pouring in through the region in what appears to be an organized movement operated by Mexican cartels. “They are unemployed, the majority are fighting age males and there is a strong possibility some have undergone some level of insurgency training,” according to a law enforcement source familiar with the situation. The groups of men are usually dressed in “camouflage military uniforms, indicating a robust and well-funded supply network to ensure everyone is outfitted the same,” said an intelligence officer with extensive U.S. military training who provided Judicial Watch with pictures and graphs of recent crossings. The uniformed men also carry camouflaged backpacks and wear carpet booties to hide footprint tracks. Large piles of the disposed carpet booties litter ranches on the U.S. side, creating a hazard for cattle that consume the trash.

One longtime area rancher said that since Biden became president, he has recorded over 3,560 illegal immigrants on security cameras on his property, a tenfold increase from the previous administration. Another said he has not seen a Border Patrol agent for quite a while, likely because the frontline Homeland Security agency is overwhelmed with the onslaught of migrants in the last few years. “They have recommended we not travel to certain areas of our ranch, and we never go out there at night,” said the rancher, who does not want his name used out of fear for the safety of his family. Locals say the violence is causing the already small population of Arivaca to dwindle quickly. A few years ago, the town had 1,200 residents and now there are approximately 600. Authorities say those who leave are mostly relocating north to Green Valley, about 35 miles away, or Tucson which is around 60 miles away. The area has become so dangerous that the U.S. Forest Service told a rancher it would no longer travel there to monitor enclosure areas established to oversee endangered species.

The continuous stream of trash and human waste left behind by the staggering flow of migrants and smugglers has also devastated the local environment and livestock. Besides large piles of discarded carpet booties, mounds of plastic waste are having a detrimental effect on cattle because they eat it and become ill, ranchers said. Many also die after ingesting traces of drugs found in wrappings left behind by smugglers. To help illustrate how porous the border is in this region, one rancher said Mexican cattle regularly cruise into the U.S. side, creating a major risk of introducing illnesses to American cattle that, although inoculated, may be vulnerable to new strains and diseases that may prevail south of the border. “We removed 120 Mexican cattle over the past six months,” said a veteran rancher, who explained that it is a lot of extra work to keep the foreign livestock from mingling with local cattle to prevent unsafe beef being distributed throughout the U.S. food industry.

If Biden gets reelected the situation will likely worsen, say law enforcement officials and residents in the remote Arizona region. Other small towns are also suffering from the impact of this administration’s flagrant open border policies. Just a few months ago Judicial Watch wrote about another once tranquil border region that has been devastated by illegal immigration and drug smuggling. It is situated in Cochise County to the east of Amado and Arivaca in the picturesque Sonoran Desert surrounded by the scenic Huachuca Mountains. Human and drug traffickers regularly evade a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region and local law enforcement officials say the addition of the new “American smuggler,” U.S. citizens, predominantly young adults from Phoenix and Tucson recruited by Mexican cartels through social media, has created deadly consequences in the communities where the American recruits often travel at dangerously high speeds through local roads and highways.

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Over the past 12 months, illegal aliens have been arrested in connection with the deaths of at least 13 Americans. Seven of those victims were minors.

“The simple fact is that every crime committed by an illegal alien is one committed by an individual who should not have been at large in the country in the first place,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green told The Daily Signal.

“While the Left likes to hide behind flawed studies and incomplete data on illegal alien crime, families across our country are suffering from the tragic realities of President [Joe] Biden and Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas’ open borders,” said Green, R-Tenn.

The growing number of American lives lost at the hands of illegal immigrants coincides with an increase in the number of criminal illegal immigrants crossing America’s borders annually.

According to Customs and Border Protection, 13,130 criminal noncitizens were encountered between ports of entry since the start of fiscal year 2024 on Oct. 1, setting up fiscal 2024 to outpace last year’s 15,267 such encounters.

“Instead of enforcing the laws they swore to uphold, Biden and Mayorkas have devoted themselves to a policy of mass catch-and-release,” Green said. “This radical agenda may excite their far-left base, but the rest of us are left wondering if one of our loved ones will be the next to fall victim to these violent crimes.”

The following are 13 Americans who have lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens in the past 12 months.

Jocelyn Nungaray, 12

Photo: Houston Police

Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, have been charged with capital murder in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston. Nungaray’s body was found in a creek on June 17.

In court documents obtained by Fox News, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Michael Abner wrote that “the defendant lured a 12-year-old under a bridge, where he and his co-defendant remained with her for over 2 hours, took her pants off, tied her up, and killed her, then threw her body into the bayou.”

Peña Ramos crossed the border in May; Martinez-Rangel in March. Both men are from Venezuela.

“Let me be very clear,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently said in an appearance on Fox News, “These bastards should be executed, and they should burn in the pits of hell. But we shouldn’t have to be talking about this, because Jocelyn should still be with us. And every day this administration is releasing more and more and more illegal aliens who are going on to kill people day after day after day.”

Gloria Cascio, 53

Photo: The Maine Wire

On April 26, Maine state troopers responded to reports of a car crash on Interstate 95 in Wells, about 30 miles south of Portland.

Driving a Toyota Prius, Oguzhan Cildir—an illegal immigrant who crossed the U.S. border from Mexico in January—hit a minivan and a pickup truck, according to The Maine Wire. The pickup truck, carrying Gloria Cascio and her husband, rolled over a number of times. Cascio was pronounced dead at the scene, and her husband suffered serious injuries.

The Maine Wire reported Thursday: “More than 62 days after the fatal accident, no charges have been filed against Cildir, and a police source tells the Maine Wire that State Police are still waiting for a toxicology report.”

Ruby Garcia, 25

Photo: Screenshot from GoFundMe

Brandon Ortiz-Vite, an illegal alien from Mexico, is accused of killing a Michigan woman, Ruby Garcia, during a carjacking attempt in March.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Ortiz-Vite was deported to Mexico in the fall of 2020, but returned to the U.S. without permission, according to the local Michigan news outlet MLive.

Garcia was found dead on a road in Grand Rapids on March 22 with a gunshot wound to the head.

Christopher Gadd, 27

Photo: Washington State Memorial Foundation

Raul Benitez Santana, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, crashed into Washington State Trooper Christopher Gadd’s cruiser at more than 100 mph in March.

Santana, driving an SUV, reportedly swerved and hit the back of Gadd’s parked patrol car on the shoulder of Interstate 5 in Marysville, Washington, about 34 miles north of Seattle.

The New York Post reports that it’s unclear when Santana first arrived in the U.S., but he has had multiple run-ins with U.S. law enforcement dating back to 2013.

Gadd was a husband and father of a daughter.

Travis Wolfe, 12

Photo: KTVI-TV Channel 2 in St. Louis

On Dec. 20, Endrina Bracho crashed her vehicle into a car carrying 12-year-old Travis Wolfe and his parents. The Missouri family was rushed to a hospital, and Travis was put on life-support. He passed away on March 6.

Bracho, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was reportedly driving 75 mph in the wrong lane when she collided headfirst with the car carrying Travis.

Bracho faces multiple charges, including involuntary manslaughter and operating a vehicle without a valid license.

Alex Wise Jr., 10

Photo: Screenshot From GoFundMe

Rogelio Ortiz-Olivas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is accused of hitting and killing Alex Wise Jr. while the young boy walked home from school in Midland County, Texas, in February.

CBS reported that Ortiz-Olivas was previously sent back to Mexico on a voluntary removal, and was then deported five times after that.

He faces charges of hit-and-run and of an accident causing death.

Lizbeth Medina, 16

Photo: KTRK-TV Channel 13 in Houston

Rafael Govea Romero was indicted in February on capital murder charges in the death of Lizbeth Medina last December.

Romero, an illegal immigrant, had reportedly been stalking Medina leading up to her killing, according to KTRK-TV.

The teen’s mother, Jacqueline Medina, found her daughter dead in the bathtub of their apartment in Edna, Texas, about 140 southeast of San Antonio.

Jeremy Poou-Caceres, 2

Photo: WTTG-TV Channel 5 in Washington, D.C.

Nilson Granados-Trejo, an illegal alien and Salvadoran national, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 2-year-old Jeremy Poou-Caceres in Maryland in February.

The little boy and his mom were out for a walk when they were caught up in the crossfire of an illegal immigrant who was in a car and firing, reportedly at another group of people.

Laken Riley, 22

Photo: Laken Riley’s Facebook account

Laken Riley, a nursing student at Augusta University, was slain while jogging on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Ga., on Feb. 22. Authorities concluded that she died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the border in 2022, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts in Riley’s death, including malice murder.

Melissa Powell, 47, and Riordan Powell, 16

Photo: Screenshot From GoFundMe

An illegal alien who had been deported four times faces charges in connection with the accident that killed mother and son Melissa and Riordan Powell in December 2023 in Colorado. He was reportedly driving under the influence.

Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas, an El Salvadoran, was said to be going about 100 mph when his vehicle struck the vehicle carrying Powell and her son.

Menjivar-Alas faces multiple charges, including vehicular homicide.

Aiden Clark, 11

Photo: Littleton & Rue Funeral Home

Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian migrant, illegally crossed the border in 2022, according to the Daily Mail.

On Aug. 22, Joseph was driving with an invalid license in Lawrenceville, Ohio, when he swerved over the centerline and struck a school bus full of children. Aiden Clark, 11, was ejected from the bus and pronounced dead at the scene. About two dozen other children were injured.

Joseph was found guilty May 1 of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide and was sentenced to nine to 13 years in prison, WDTN-TV reported.

Rachel Morin, 37 

Photo: Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff’s Office

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, 23, crossed the U.S. southern border illegally in February 2023, according to Harford County, Maryland, Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler. Six months later, in August 2023, Hernandez is suspected of attacking, raping, and killing Rachel Morin, a mother of five, while she exercised on the MA & PA Heritage Trail in Bel Air, Maryland, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore.

After a lengthy investigation, authorities arrested Hernandez in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 14 on charges of rape and murder.

AUTHOR

Virginia Allen

Virginia Allen is a senior news producer for The Daily Signal and host of “The Daily Signal Podcast” and “Problematic Women.” Send an email to Virginia. Virginia on X: @Virginia_Allen5.