- DOJ and DHS hold press conference to discuss efforts to find and protect at-risk migrant children.
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announces indictments of multiple super sponsors, who allegedly helped bring more than a dozen children into the U.S. illegally.
- DHS Secretary Mullin says, “We’re going to rescue as many kids as we possibly can.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in a news conference on Thursday discussed current efforts the government is undertaking to protect migrant children who come to the United States unaccompanied.
Blanche said that hundreds of thousands of children were illegally brought into the country during the Biden administration and that many of those children were abused by those smuggling them.
“When government fails to protect our borders,” said Blanche, “it is the most vulnerable who suffer.”
“This department and this administration,” Blanche continued, “has zero tolerance for unlawful activity and is committed to protecting children who suffered the consequences of open borders.”
3 individuals indicted for allegedly smuggling children
As he addressed reporters, Blanche announced the indictment of three individuals in Ohio for allegedly smuggling children into the U.S.
“All three are illegal aliens from Guatemala,” said Blanche, “who allegedly took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle more than a dozen children into the United States by scamming the system and exploiting the loopholes created by the last administration.”
“This is one indictment, but it is not unique,” continued Blanche. “There are over 15,500 super sponsor cases that we have identified along with DHS.”
A super sponsor is a person within the United States who sponsors more than three children, to whom they are not related, to cross the border unaccompanied.
“The border will be secure, innocent children will be protected, and sponsors should be properly vetted,” Blanche said.
Reversing Biden-era immigration trends
Blanche detailed the efforts the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are taking to account for the unaccompanied children brought into the U.S. illegally.
Blanche said the Justice Department is “punishing those who exploited the system and smuggled unaccompanied children across the border in the previous administration.”
Blanche claimed that, during the Biden administration, more than 475,000 unaccompanied children entered the United States.
“The way that this happened,” Blanche continued, “was typically because criminals, calling themselves sponsors, trafficked these children to the border, usually committing fraud to do so.”
“Oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited.”
“We didn’t go and hire forensic accountants or rock star federal agents to find out the data,” Blanche said, “so there were individuals occupying positions of leadership in this country that knew this was happening.”
Blanche said that the Trump administration is committed to protecting children who were brought into the country illegally.
Mullin on abuses of migrant children
Mullin reiterated the difficulties that unaccompanied migrant children have faced.
“Some of these kids,” said the DHS secretary, “claim that they were raped 600-700 times.”
Mullin also said that the Biden administration had reports showing that more than a third of the girls brought to the border were sexually assaulted before crossing into the United States.
Mullin said that most of the kids are being found in “sanctuary cities,” naming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in particular.
Mamdani issued an executive order in February in an effort to protect migrants in the city from immigration enforcement efforts, and directed the city’s Administration for Children Services to reduce the number of people referred for protective orders so federal officers wouldn’t become aware of them, according to The New York Times.
“We’re going to find the worst of the worst,” said Mullin. “We’re going to rescue as many kids as we possibly can.”