Illegal alien parents who smuggled their children across the U.S.-Mexico Border will soon be targeted for priority deportation, according to sources who are familiar with a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) effort.
In a report, the New York Times reveals that new initiatives at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will focus primarily on deporting parents with previous records of removal and illegal re-entry after smuggling their children into the U.S.:
As part of a new round of immigration sweeps, officials are targeting parents or other relatives who were deported, re-entered the United States and then had their children smuggled across the border. Legal experts say cases of illegal re-entry are faster and easier to prove than a smuggling charge.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said it was common for parents or family members in the United States to make illegal payments to smugglers to arrange for children to be brought to the border, where they turn themselves in and are often eventually handed over to their relatives. Tens of thousands of women and children have arrived at the border in the last three years, beginning with a surge of arrivals in the summer of 2014, many seeking refuge from gang violence and extreme poverty in Central America.
ICE officials who spoke anonymously to the Times said the crackdown on illegal alien parent smugglers would serve as a warning and deterrent for others.
“The risks associated with smuggling children into the U.S. present a constant humanitarian threat,” an ICE spokesperson told the New York Times in a statement. “The sponsors who have placed children directly into harm’s way by entrusting them to violent criminal organizations will be held accountable for their role in these conspiracies.”
In a recent interview, as Breitbart Texas reported, a human smuggler on the southern border explained how difficult their efforts would become should President Trump follow through on his campaign promise to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“Right now, I can’t imagine exactly how [a wall would be built] but I can tell you that it would be a lot harder if they build that wall,” the smuggler said. “Really, because it’s already hard with the fence we have now.”
Standalone children who show up at the U.S.-Mexico Border are deemed “Alien Children” or UACs and are regularly placed in particular sections of the country. As Breitbart Texas previously reported, UACs were repeatedly put in MS-13 gang-prone regions like Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York.
The MS-13 gang is a violent crime syndicate that thrives in areas where unaccompanied children are relocated. The gang is responsible for a number of murders within the last year and was singled out by Attorney General Jeff Sessions for federal targeting efforts.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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