This is a documentary released on 25 November 2024 produced and narrated by Ryan Matta about child trafficking by the cartels and US government agencies.
The runtime is approximately 1 hour 34 minutes. As with most documentaries, there are some cheesy elements; for example, the music or some of the narration are a bit over the top. And given the content and specifics presented, the film can be shorter.
Nonetheless, this is a serious topic and Matta covers it well, with enough specifics to make it a satisfying viewing. The production is good and mostly edited well, and credit to Matta for making this available for free.
The first half covers how the cartels, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and taxpayer-funded NGOs execute the child trafficking. The second half covers the timeline of how government officials, Democrat and Republican, facilitate the operation.
In short, this is not a failure of policy or the failure to implement said policies. It is certainly not negligence. It is systemic and therefore a deliberate effort to run and perpetuate these trafficking networks.
A few points are included below, not intended as a summary.
● From 2019 to 2023, ICE had transferred 448,820 UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Child) to HHS.
● The Biden-Harris administration lost 85,000 UACs after they were placed with sponsors. This number has increased to 320,000 since early 2023. This is about 252 children go missing every day. The narrator makes the point that he did not receive over 250 Amber Alerts every day.
● DHS, headed by Alejandro Mayorkas, is responsible for the intake and processing of UACs, HHS, headed by Xavier Becerra, takes custody, and ORR, headed by Robin Dunn Marcos, is responsible for the placement of children.
● Trump in 2020, the last year of his first term, 16,837 UACs crossed the border. They were DNA tested and released to parent.
● Biden in 2021, his first year in office, saw 107,646 UACs.
● Matta outlines the “normal” trafficking process.
Phase 1: Gaining the child by kidnapping, coercion or buying.
Phase 2: Smuggling across the border.
Phase 3: Delivery. This is the most dangerous for traffickers given US law enforcement and the array of surveillance.
● A child can be sold for $3,000 in Mexico “almost immediately”.
● Children from 180 countries turn up in Mexico.
● Mules deliver the child across the border to the trafficker. The child is then kept at a stash house before being delivered to the buyer in the US—there is less than 1% chance the child is seen alive again.
● It is common for children to be dropped across the border without being directly delivered to a trafficker. This is risky as the probability of these children being rescued by US border agents is high, unless… the US border agents act as traffickers.
● For example, reporter Anthony Aguero found and delivered a child to a border agent who was annoyed.
● Children are drugged and recycled to come across with different adults pretending to be family. No DNA tests were conducted under the Biden-Harris administration as 45 minutes is considered too long.
● Children are dropped across the border with the name, address and phone number of the adult “sponsor”. These details are logged into the system as protocol demands but the sponsor is actually a trafficker.
● HHS calls in an NGO to deliver the child to an HHS intake facility. During this period, the “sponsor” is “checked”. NGO then takes the child from the HHS intake facility to its own long-term care facility.
● Once approved, the NGO delivers the child to the sponsor. Adults posing as children is also common (presumably part of running the trafficking operation).
● These NGOs include so-called (left-leaning) catholic and christian organizations.
● According to HHS whistleblowers, they were pressured to work quickly, to verify obviously fake documents by simply checking if they generally looked like the real ones, and to verify addresses by merely checking the likes of Google Maps.
● In one instance, the address was next to a strip club.
● Multiple (hundreds) of children delivered to the same (suspicious) address was dismissed by superiors as speculation.
● HHS workers questioning their superiors were met with reprimand or dismissal, the latter case made into a spectacle by being escorted out by security.
● On 21 January 2021, Biden issued 93 executive orders that in effect undid the immigration policies of the Trump administration.
● In the following months, rules that protected these children were removed. For example, on 16 June 2021, Trump-era asylum decisions A-B-I and A-B-II were rescinded under Attorney General Merrick Garland.
● In April 2021, border wall construction was halted/cancelled.
● Under the Biden-Harris administration’s “catch and release”, 338,000 illegal aliens were released in 2022 FY.
● Despite having the “power of the purse” since taking the House, the Republicans continued to fund the (NGO) programs that facilitate trafficking. For example, Southwest Key Programs have 56 locations in 18 states and received over $2.8b in total, more during the Republican-majority period than the Democrat-majority period.
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