Separation of Families?
OR Defense Against Human trafficking and Minors at the Border
I propose DNA testing at the Border Facilities to ensure children supposedly separated from "their parents" are truly the children of the adults who claim them.
“It is intolerable that human trafficking — modern-day slavery — could occur in our own backyard,” said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the subcommittee. “But what makes the Marion cases even more alarming is that a U.S. government agency was responsible for delivering some of the victims into the hands of their abusers.”
The Department of Health and Human Services placed more than a dozen immigrant children in the custody of human traffickers after it failed to conduct background checks of caregivers, according to a Senate report released on Thursday.
The drug cartels, locally referred to as "la mafia", control an extensive network of human traffickers and informants. They extort for money, kidnap and kill migrants at will. The locals think they have infiltrated the local branches of the police and government structures.
The drug cartels, locally referred to as "la mafia", control an extensive network of human traffickers and informants. They extort for money, kidnap and kill migrants at will. The locals think they have infiltrated the local branches of the police and government structures.
A cross-border baby trafficking ring allegedly operated by welfare officials in northern Mexico — and then covered up by state prosecutors — is highlighting the issue of human trafficking in the country.
The infant trafficking ring reportedly involved officials from the Sonora state child welfare agency using their access to vulnerable single mothers to obtain babies they then sold in Mexico for up to 150,000 pesos, or $8,875. Babies were also allegedly sold in the United States for up to $20,000.
Has the child been used to gain sympathy at the border to gain a free pass into the country?
Has a person lured a minor into the U.S. by promising a better life and the chance to attend school, but then been coerced into labor after their arrival.
- Examples: Shandra Woworuntu lived in Indonesia before coming to the United States.4 She left a country in economic and political turmoil after seeing a newspaper ad about available hospitality jobs in the United States. Upon arriving at the airport, she discovered that the men who picked her up were not taking her to a hotel, rather to a brothel where she was forced to have sex with men in order to pay off an imposed debt of $30,000.
- Aroldo Castillo Serrano lured Guatemalan minors and adults into the U.S. by promising a better life and the chance to attend school, but coerced them into working at their egg farm after they arrived. The immigrants worked physically demanding jobs for up to 12 hours a day including cleaning chicken coops and unloading crates. In both of these cases, the perpetrators were found guilty and received prison sentences.
- Twenty-four women were forced into prostitution at brothels on the East Coast through threats of violence against them and their children. The principal traffickers were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 25 to 50 years each. The mother of the main defendants was arrested in Mexico and later extradited to the United States where she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the scheme.
- Some towns in the small central state of Tlaxcala are famed as bases for family run forced prostitution networks in which fathers teach their sons how to ensnare young vulnerable women into their rings with promises of love and marriage. Some Mexican beach resorts are also well-known hubs for child prostitution and pornography.
Adoption rackets, however, are less known. The ring in Sonora is particularly shocking given the alleged key role played by public officials supposed to be protecting children.
Estrada said the US Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to Navarro on March 26, identifying two members of an alleged ring that was "selling newly born babies to couples both in Mexico and the United States." He said Navarro did nothing to follow up the tip for weeks.
The letter said a lawyer named José Manuel Hernández López and his former girlfriend Emma Falcon were the central figures in a "complex network" that provided their clients with birth certificates identifying them as the children's biological parents. The letter noted that Hernández possessed a visa that enabled him to cross over the border and coordinate sales in the United States.
Another of Hernández's former girlfriends, Denisse Ramos Campillo, also went to the state authorities with a similar story.
How can this problem be solved?
Few migrants who were at the Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley Respite Center earlier this month knew about the family separations. But when told about them, several parents said they wouldn't take the risk of losing their children.
Hernandez, the mother of two, said that back in Honduras, she and her husband had it all — a home, a business and family. But after her husband refused to help drug traffickers, they were threatened and an employee of their car wash business was killed, she said. They tried moving and starting another business but were tracked down. They pulled the children out of school and came to the U.S.
Still, she doesn't think she would have crossed into the U.S. if she'd known about the new zero-tolerance policy.
“If that was the law, I wouldn’t come,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be separated from my children because that’s why we come.”
Mexico came first in their journey north. Why did they not stop there?
The problem here is that Border officers and ICE find it difficult to know who is family and who is not. The United States cannot accept everyone who claims to be seeking refuge --because there are unscrupulous people among them who do not deserve refuge. M16 gang members, for example, who account for many of those unaccompanied minors that make up a large percentage of "children" held in centers. Their presence turns the United States into exactly what honest, good people are fleeing.
I am the first to say that children are better off with their parents -- in most cases. But, should having a child with you secure your entry?
Aren't parents waiting their turn through legal entry just as worthy as those who come across our border illegally? Do we really know who they are? Do we know their claim is legitimate? Is the parent any less guilty of breaking the law and entering the country illegally? Is the parent REALLY the parent?
Others have admitted to posing falsely with children who are not their own, and Border Patrol officials say that such instances of fraud are increasing.
According to azcentral.com, it is “common to have parents entrust their children to a smuggler as a favor or for profit.”
If someone is determined to come here illegally, the decent and safest thing would be to leave the child at home with a relative and send money back home. Because we favor family units over single adults, we are creating an incentive to do the opposite and use children to cut deals with smugglers.
Aren't parents waiting their turn through legal entry just as worthy as those who come across our border illegally? Do we really know who they are? Do we know their claim is legitimate? Is the parent any less guilty of breaking the law and entering the country illegally? Is the parent REALLY the parent?
Americans also deserve protection in defense of the safety and security of this nation. We assume that the natural bond of child and parent is paramount. Unfortunately, in today's world, unscrupulous people play upon our American sense of decency to promote trafficking in human beings, drugs, and terrorism.
For the security of the child and our nation?
This conundrum must begin first with BORDER SECURITY, including the wall.
I suggest adding DNA testing to keep children from erroneously being handed over to those who seek to abuse them.
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