(DC Pundit) – During former President Joe Biden’s border free-for-all, chaos reigned, and cartels thrived. But what’s finally coming to light is more horrific than even critics imagined: an industrial-scale system of child trafficking and abuse, paid for by you, the American taxpayer. Now, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, that machine is being dismantled piece by piece.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t just bureaucratic bungling. It was willful negligence disguised as compassion. While Biden stood idly by, patting himself on the back for being “humane,” traffickers saw a golden opportunity. Between 2019 and 2023, Homeland Security officials encountered more than 448,000 unaccompanied minors. That’s not a border policy, that’s an open invitation to child smugglers.
Many of these kids, some as young as five, arrived in the U.S. with nothing but a phone number scrawled on their clothes or arms. That was often enough for “non-government contractors” — private companies hired by the feds — to hand these children off to alleged sponsors without so much as a background check. As Morgan Lerette, a former Army intel officer and Blackwater contractor, told the New York Post: “They weren’t confirming that it was a real person, family, or address… some addresses were storage units or strip clubs.”
In other words, government-paid staffers were, quite literally, delivering children into the hands of traffickers. “It’s a conveyor belt,” Lerette said bluntly. “American taxpayers are essentially paying for child sex trafficking.”
And it gets worse. In one 2024 case, smugglers sedated toddlers with melatonin gummies and snuck them across the border using fraudulent documents, birth certificates stolen from real U.S. children. They were then dumped at stash houses before being scattered across the country. A 23-year-old woman, Vanessa Valadez, pled guilty to smuggling one child. Five others also took plea deals. Officials say this is far from an isolated case.
After years of neglect, President Trump has taken action. Since returning to the White House in January, his administration has implemented real vetting procedures, requiring U.S. ID, proof of income, fingerprinting, and even DNA testing to confirm relationships. Foreign passports alone no longer cut it. As a result, the human conveyor belt is grinding to a halt.
But the mess Biden left behind is still being cleaned up. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, over 233,000 children were never even issued proper paperwork by ICE, they’ve simply vanished. Another 31,000 were released to sponsors with fake, commercial, or missing addresses. And more than 43,000 didn’t show up for their immigration court dates. The Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times they’ve lost track of 85,000 children.
These kids aren’t just slipping through bureaucratic cracks; they’re being exploited. HSI agents have uncovered migrant children forced into labor at slaughterhouses and factories, working in agriculture, sewing clothing, and doing backbreaking labor to pay back smugglers. Many used fake IDs to land these jobs, often encouraged by their so-called “sponsors.”
Biden’s negligence was so extreme that even one of his biggest federal contractors couldn’t keep their hands clean. Southwest Key, which raked in nearly $3 billion to run 29 shelters for unaccompanied minors, was finally cut off by President Trump in March. Why? Because the Department of Justice filed a damning lawsuit accusing the organization of allowing “severe and pervasive sexual harassment,” including rape and exploitation of children as young as five.
One horrific account in the lawsuit detailed how a youth care worker in El Paso repeatedly abused three girls, ages five, eight, and eleven. The 8-year-old told investigators he entered their room at night and assaulted them, threatening to murder their families if they spoke out. Another girl at a separate shelter described her alleged rapist as a man who “can do whatever he pleases because he is a Shift Leader.”
In response to the lawsuit, Southwest Key claimed the allegations didn’t reflect the “level of care” they provide, an absurd statement considering over 100 reports of abuse were cited in the DOJ’s complaint. After the Trump administration cut funding, the organization furloughed 5,000 employees, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped. The message was clear: there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s not paying for this anymore.
Border Czar Tom Homan recently explained on Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast how the scheme worked: “Smugglers would drop off kids… CBP had to hand them off within 72 hours… then they were shipped off to ‘sponsors’ with no real verification.” A Border Patrol veteran with 22 years of experience echoed the same concern, warning that, “Anyone could claim they are parents or relatives… [Contractors] don’t even bother to verify.”
Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Agencies are now tracking down the missing children, implementing real checks, and taking apart the trafficking networks that flourished under Biden’s watch.
This isn’t just about politics. It’s about national security. It’s about child safety. And it’s about holding accountable those who turned a blind eye while our most vulnerable were handed off to predators.
The difference couldn’t be more stark: While Biden enabled this nightmare, Trump is working to end it. That’s the leadership America needs.
Copyright 2025. DCPundit.com | Featured image credit: United States Department of Homeland Security/Public Domain
