The Number of Adult Migrants Posing as Children at Border Surging; The Number of Migrant Adults Lying About Their Ages and Trying to Pass as Unaccompanied Children Increases, Border Patrol sector reports

The number of adult migrants posing as children at border surging:

Dozens of adults posing as unaccompanied minors have been found illegally crossing the southern border in recent weeks, according to disturbing new data from the El Paso Sector of the US Border Patrol.

Criminal enterprises use the twisted ruse to exploit the favorable treatment the US gives children caught at the border without parents, officials said.

Agents encountered “more than” 55 adults posing as children in the El Paso area since Oct. 1 — and 559 adults were caught in the sector purporting to be children in the previous fiscal year — the Border Patrol said Friday.

“Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) frequently recruit and exploit individuals, convincing them to pose as unaccompanied children (UCs) as they are smuggled into the United States,” officials said in a statement.

The surge in adults caught posing as children at the border signals increased gang activity.

“About 30% of the MS-13 members arrested in recent years by ICE originally entered the US as unaccompanied minors,” said Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies. “And it is not just happening in the El Paso sector.” —>READ MORE HERE

Number of migrant adults lying about their ages and trying to pass as unaccompanied children increases, Border Patrol sector reports:

The number of migrant adults posing as unaccompanied children at the border rose slightly in the first month in October along the El Paso sector.

Newly released U.S. Border Patrol data show that since October 1 in the El Paso sector, 55 adults attempted to present themselves as children. In the 12 months between October 1 2020 to September 30 2021, 559 adult migrants were stopped.

The El Paso sector encompasses 264 miles of the southwestern border in New Mexico and west Texas.

The sector reported 193,918 undocumented migrants at the border for fiscal year 2021, the fourth-highest amount among U.S. Border Patrol’s nine sectors. At least 22,906 minors were stopped by border officers.

Agents of the El Paso sector work with the Department of Homeland Security to identify the fraudulent scheme. It is commonly used by criminal organization who provide smuggling services through the Mexico-United States border for migrants. —>READ MORE HERE

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