Staff Reports
A Senate hearing this week exposed one of the darkest consequences of the Biden administration’s reckless border policies: the exploitation and endangerment of unaccompanied minors. Lawmakers heard about a shocking smuggling scheme in which four individuals—two Americans and two Mexican nationals—posed as parents to young children, using fake U.S. documents and even sedating kids with marijuana gummies to sneak them across the southern border. The fact that one child had to be hospitalized underscores just how dangerous and inhumane this border chaos has become.
From May to October 2024, these smugglers reportedly charged $900 per child, treating innocent boys and girls as nothing more than commodities to traffic for profit. This case is not an outlier but a window into the cartel-driven exploitation of minors that flourishes under weak border enforcement. Instead of stopping this brutal trade, Biden’s policies have all but rolled out a welcome mat, signaling to criminal networks that the U.S. is open for business in human trafficking.
The crisis is bigger than any one case. Recent testimony confirmed that around 320,000 unaccompanied minors have been lost from government tracking since Biden took office. Only a small fraction—about 25,000—have been located, and tragically, at least 27 are confirmed dead. Thousands more remain unaccounted for, raising fears they are victims of trafficking, forced labor, or worse. These are not abstract numbers; they are children, vanished into the shadows because Washington is more focused on political optics than on ensuring safety and accountability.
Witnesses at the hearing also blasted the administration’s policy of hastily releasing minors into the custody of unvetted sponsors. Instead of ensuring children are placed in safe homes, many are handed over to strangers, often without thorough background checks. Former officials have said that, in some cases, Border Patrol agents were the safest guardians these children ever encountered—an indictment of a system that values speed of processing over human dignity. This failure rests squarely on the shoulders of Biden and his open-borders allies.
If anything is clear from these revelations, it’s that border reform can no longer be delayed. Protecting unaccompanied minors must come before political posturing. That means stronger border enforcement, holding smugglers accountable with maximum penalties, and ending the dangerous policies that incentivize families to send children north alone. The Senate hearing pulled back the curtain on an undeniable reality: Biden’s border failures don’t just undermine American sovereignty—they’re costing vulnerable children their futures and, in too many cases, their lives.
