During a two-week sting operation in July to uncover child exploitation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects. Called “Operation Cross Country XIII,” the sweep also located 59 missing children. The FBI reported that the victims’ average age was 15½, with the youngest being 11 years old.
To locate the victims, the FBI teamed with state and municipal agencies as well as with its own nationwide branches. Agents who specialize in identifying sex trafficking victims are embedded into the illicit operations to gain as much inside information as possible. According to the FBI’s website, in 2022 the agency conducted 391 nationwide operations. As is its practice, the FBI shared only barebones information, and the wording of its press release was ambiguous. For example, this uninspiring statement taken from the FBI’s presser: “Those suspects identified will be subject to additional investigation for potential charges.”
Fox News’ tireless Bill Melugin, who has reported in detail on the endless border crisis, dug deeper into the ugly sexual exploitation tragedy. In their Fox News story, Melugin and colleague Adam Shaw wrote that, based on information obtained from Florida officials, nearly 40 percent of the people arrested in one part of the state were in the U.S. illegally. Seven out of 19 people arrested in Bay County, Florida, were illegal aliens. But facts about how the illegal aliens arrived in Florida weren’t provided. The seven child predators could have been paroled at the border or perhaps are unaccompanied minors or possibly were released when a local police department ignored an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. These vital details should be provided.
Five sex criminals had no record of lawful entry into the U.S. One man was admitted on a B-2 visitor visa that expired in 2021, and another was admitted on a J-1 cultural and educational visa that also expired in 2021. In separate incidents during the same timeframe, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that his agents in a single day had encountered four immigrants with convictions for sex crimes against children attempting to enter illegally, and the Texas Department of Public Safety announced that its troopers had arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico for the possession or promotion of child pornography.
No one in the federal government is actively looking for visa overstays, so illegally remaining in the country is easy. On September 30, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security published its 2020 Entry/Exit Overstay Report based on those who were required to depart during FY 2020. COVID-19 doubtlessly affected DHS findings – that there were 46.2 million nonimmigrant admissions into the U.S. through air or sea ports of entry who were expected to depart during FY 2020. Of this total, Customs and Border Protection calculated a total overstay rate of 1.48 percent, or 684,499 overstay events.
From the report, two totals stand out. The first is that U.S. took in 46.2 million nonimmigrants during a one-year period – a staggering number especially since government officials have steadfastly refused to initiate a biometric exit system which would allow officials to track those who enter at sea and air ports of entry. The second total, the 684,499 overstays, is likely understated and purposely deceptively low; most immigration analysts calculate the overstay rate to be about 40 percent.
Congress has already mandated the deployment of an exit-tracking system. First required by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act signed 27 years ago by President Bill Clinton in 1996, and subsequently endorsed by the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Homeland Security, after four successive administrations – Clinton, Bush Obama, and Trump – the U.S. still doesn’t have exit-tracking. Had exit-tracking been in place in 2001, 9/11 likely could have been averted.
Human trafficking for sex and child labor is a $150 billion industry. The Biden administration and future presidential administrations can choose between truly identifying who comes in and who leaves on time or allow the status quo to remain, and look the other way as sex trafficking continues as an ever-rising, ever-more lucrative business.
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