It’s a situation Border Patrol Agent Hermann Rivera faced far too often: an adult illegal alien approaching him with a child in tow, seeking asylum in the United States.
“He initially stated that the child was his kid,” Rivera said. But after carefully checking his documents and pressing the issue, the man admitted the truth. “’I’m not sure whose child this is,’” Rivera said the man told Border Patrol agents when he finally revealed the truth.
During a news conference Oct. 29, in El Paso, Texas, Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan explained the role of transnational criminal organizations in driving the surge in illegal migration. “[Illegal aliens] were coached and mentored and given what to say by the cartels and the human smuggling organizations: You grab a kid, and that is your U.S. passport,” said Morgan. “That will guarantee you entry into the United States. And guess what, they were right.”
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“[The child] could be recycled to some other adult in Central America or alien smuggling organizations using them for some other means just to get more money out of [that child].”
Edit: I don’t necessarily think this is what happened to Loan, but it did cross my mind. However, Loan is a child with a loving family whose disappearance they had to know would trigger a large police response, which is not a typical trafficking victim. I guess they thought with their connections they could get away with it?
Securing America's Borders
www.cbp.gov