Crackdown on Illegal Immigration Protects Children
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents released no illegal immigrants into America last month — an exponential decrease from the 62,000 released in May 2024.
This astounding discrepancy reflects the government’s broader crack down on illegal migration through America’s southern border. CBP agents encountered less than 12,500 illegal migrants this May, a 93% drop from 180,000 encounters in May 2024.
Migrant children arguably benefit most from tougher immigration enforcement. Child traffickers operated with unprecedented impunity between 2019 and 2024, taking advantage of America’s overwhelmed border to exploit and enslave vulnerable kids.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children into America between 2019 and 2023 to await immigration trial. The federal government lost between 7% (32,000) and 65% (291,000) of them, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report released last year.
ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) get just two opportunities to check in with every unaccompanied migrant child released into the country — a phone call one month after HHS places them with an American sponsor and the child’s immigration court hearing.
An estimated 149,000 kids missed their verbal check-ins between 2019 and 2023, and more than 32,000 missed their court dates. According to DHS, ICE had no “formal policy or process” to track missing children down.
Another 291,000 had yet to be assigned court dates at all; they could be anywhere, for all the government knows.
Per DHS’ report:
Virtually no one enters America illegally without paying, or being trafficked by, crime rings. A New York Times exposé from 2022 explains:
Homeland Security Investigations estimates organized crime made $13 billion dollars off trafficking human beings across America’s southern border in 2022 alone. A study from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women found 60% of unaccompanied migrant children are trafficked by cartels and smugglers for pornography and drug transportation.
Others must pay cartels controlling the border exorbitant prices to enter the U.S. Those who can’t pay must work off their debts in a form of slavery known as debt-bondage.
The few children who manage to escape gang violence and enslavement may still find themselves in debt to their American sponsors. In a Times investigation from 2023, an HHS worker admitted some American hosts illegally charge unaccompanied migrant children rent in exchange for a place to stay.
HHS couldn’t investigate complaints, she explained, because of the overwhelming number of children in its custody.
The investigation found children as young as 12 years old working full-time, dangerous jobs in construction, roofing, commercial laundries, industrial bakeries and slaughterhouses to pay their sponsors and smugglers.
More than 60 anonymous HHS workers interviewed by the Times estimated two-thirds of the migrant children in HHS’ custody ended up with full-time jobs.
CBP agents encountered just 6,575 unaccompanied migrant children trying to enter the country illegally between February and May 2025 — an 85% decrease from last year’s 44,840.
Some viciously criticize the government for detaining children at the southern border. But the data suggests the best thing America can do for these vulnerable kids is disincentivize illegal immigration and keep underage detainees in custody where they cannot be preyed upon.
Additional Articles and Resources
American immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children
Trump Sees Lowest Border Numbers in History: ‘The Invasion is Over’
Violent Gang Takes Advantage of American Immigration Policy
Politics is Putting Children at Risk on the Southern Border
Trump’s Border Czar Explains Child Trafficking Under Biden Administration
It’s Compassionate to Oppose Illegal immigration. Here’s Why.
Talking to Your Kids About Illegal Immigration
My Rescue From Human Trafficking to New Life in Christ
Identifying the Signs of Human Trafficking
