The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched a new program in partnership with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to help protect 450,000 unaccompanied children (UAC) who were illegally smuggled over the border and placed with unvetted sponsors. The vast majority of these at-risk minors came to America during the Biden administration.
According to a statement from ICE, many of the sponsors of these unaccompanied children “are often criminals including sex traffickers, gang members, and abusers.”
The program is called the UAC Safety Verification Initiative. Its focus is to conduct welfare checks on the children who have been identified to make certain they are safe and not being exploited.
“We know that many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "We've jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children.”
McLaughlin said so far, the Trump administration has located more than 24,400 of these children in person, in America, through visits and “door-knocks.”
ICE stated that the UAC Safety Verification Initiative started on Monday, November 10, in Florida and will now be rolled out to other states.
The DHS agency provided a number of real-life examples of the types of situations Biden and the left have created, and which ICE will be working to avoid and address.
In Arizona, ICE arrested a Guinean alien sponsor who had been detained by Arizona law enforcement for felony aggravated assault.
In Florida, ICE arrested a Honduran alien sponsor who had been criminally arrested by Florida law enforcement for larceny, fraud, and counterfeiting; the agency arrested another Honduran alien sponsor who had been criminally arrested by Florida law enforcement for attempted robbery with a weapon; and it arrested a Guatemalan alien sponsor who had been arrested by Florida law enforcement for felony hit and run and driving without a license.
In Georgia, ICE arrested a Guatemalan alien sponsor who had been convicted of domestic violence. In Maryland, ICE arrested another Guatemalan alien sponsor who had been arrested by Maryland law enforcement for the rape of an unaccompanied child.
In Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Massachusetts, ICE arrested an Ecuadorian alien sponsor who had been criminally arrested for enticement of a child under 16 and possession of child sexual abuse material.
ICE arrested an El Salvadoran alien sponsor in Michigan who had been convicted of drug trafficking.
In New Jersey, ICE arrested a Guatemalan alien sponsor who was wanted for attempted aggravated homicide.
In New York, ICE arrested a Venezuelan alien sponsor who New York police had criminally detained for prostitution, possession of marijuana, and failure to appear.
In North Carolina, ICE arrested a Guatemalan alien sponsor who had been criminally arrested by North Carolina law enforcement for attempted murder.
In Texas, ICE and local law enforcement arrested a Guatemalan alien sponsor unrelated to the unaccompanied child for human trafficking and statutory rape. ICE said “the 14-year-old unaccompanied child was pregnant with the sponsor’s baby.”
The Biden administration's open border policies gave a free pass to human traffickers and sex traffickers. Obviously, this is a massive problem that can’t be fixed overnight. But it all reinforces the need to get off the sidelines for the 2026 midterms. Your Republican candidates need you if conservatives are to remain in power and continue to fix so many of the messes that Biden and his cronies created on purpose so that they could create a dependency on government.
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