A border patrol agent is claiming that migrant children are being used as a “commodity to circumvent a loophole” in federal immigration law.
Translation? Illegal immigrants are increasingly bringing children who are not their own–and pretending to be their parents, in order to gain preferential treatment from immigration authorities.
Under federal law, immigrant children can only be detained for a limited amount of time. Since the Trump Administration no longer separates children from their parents, after facing backlash from politicians on both sides of the aisle, adult illegal immigrants have figured out that pretending to have children keeps them out of federal custody.
Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz said the problem is getting worse.
“We really are concerned, especially for those tender-age children because quite often they can’t communicate that they’re not with a family member,” he said.
He added that the crisis is putting children at risk, and cited multiple examples of fradulent family cases–nearly 600 instances in 2018 alone.
