Unaccompanied Minors on the United States Southern Border

Are the dangers of sex trafficking on the United States’ southern border real?

Sheriff Bill Waybourn from the Fort Worth area of Texas has an opinion. It’s based on his getting to see the extent of the problem each day.  

“We had 954 unaccompanied minors come across the border yesterday,” Waybourn begins.

“What’s scary about this,” he continues, “is we don’t have the time or the resources to be careful about where these kids go.”

The System Is Overwhelmed

He goes on to explain that the system is so overwhelmed that to make room for the new individuals crossing the border, they’ve had to shorten the time of those already in custody to 27 hours. “As a result,” he points out, “a lot of things can go wrong.” 

For example, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official may get a call from someone who’s calling himself, let’s say,  Ricardo Perez. The ICE official hears a voice on the other end of the line telling him, “I’m here to pick up my family member, Amelia.”  

“The ICE official may run a check on the guy,” explains Waybourn, “but ‘Perez’ may be using a false ID. It’s a dark world and we don’t really know who he is.”  Soon enough, Amelia leaves the facility with her “family member.”  Waybourn can’t know what little Amelia’s fate will be. There are no records or follow-up. 

He can’t be sure how many of the unaccompanied minors end up being trafficked. However, he gets clues that lead him to believe the numbers are substantial.

Sex traffickers can make millions of dollars with just a few minors.  Given the sheer numbers of unaccompanied minors, the odds of a trafficker being caught and prosecuted are small.

A Frequent Form of Abuse

Here’s the kind of abuse he sees. Let’s say a 14-year-old girl–we’ll call her Maria–shows up in a family unit, with “her dad.” The two tell ICE officials that they’re going to Santa Monica, California to join the rest of their family.   It sounds good.  But here’s too often what happens.  “A week later we find that same girl is crossing the border again,” says Waybourn. “This time, she’s with her supposed ‘uncle.’”

What’s almost certainly happening, Waybourn explains, is a common ruse that cartel members use to enable adults to cross the border and stay in this country. After her ‘dad’ got across, members of a cartel transported Maria back into Mexico.  There, they re-used her to enable another unrelated adult to cross the border. It’s a common practice, and typically, Maria is doing it against her will. She’s terrified that if she doesn’t cooperate in this immigration scam, the cartel will kill her family.

She’s a perfect target for Cartel members because when she declares she’s part of a ‘family unit,’ she’s provided the guy accompanying her a free entry ticket into the US. “They’ll keep using her for this until ICE officials figure out what’s going on,” explains Waybourn

Meanwhile, she’s owned by the cartel. Tragically, when she’s not enabling supposed family members to enter the US, cartel members are sex-trafficking her for additional income.

When it comes to border crossings, Welbourn recognizes that there are good people coming here, trying to find a better life.  But when he looks at how the US is dealing with the overwhelming number of unaccompanied minors, he wishes we’d start a global discussion about what happens when unaccompanied minors cross national borders.   

He wishes people were more aware of how inadequate the response is to the vulnerable children who are entering the US.  “Everyone is trying to say this is somebody else’s problem, not ours. But it is ours. Let’s talk about it!’ 

Contact Sheriff Welbourne at: bewaybourn@tarrantcounty.com.