The Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector captured more than 665 illegal immigrant adults posing as children since October so they could cross the border.
From Fox News:
El Paso Sector, which has been ramping up its technology and processing capabilities to identify those coming across the border, said in a release that it recently identified 10 adults posing as minors — amid hundreds of such encounters this fiscal year.In one instance, three adults aged between 21 and 22, were encountered with one adult and nine unaccompanied minors. Their identities were revealed at the El Paso Sector Processing Center when they tried to use forged documents.Separately, last week agents discovered three men, aged 18, 25 and 26, who were part of a group of nine migrants entering the U.S. Agents spotted discrepancies between their story and their documents that had them down as minors.
On August 17, agents at the Ysleta Station in El Paso found a 22-year-old male and 19-year-old female posing as adults.
They were all from Guatemala.
Unaccompanied minors are exempt from Title 42 public health protections. The Department of Health and Human Services take the children into custody, where officials will unite them “with sponsors or relatives already in the country.”
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) use ways other than documents to age the people at the border because a lot of the people use fakes.
But the biometrics and other databases don’t always work:
“Transnational Criminal Organizations exploit migrants convincing them to pose as minors in order to be processed as such” El Paso Sector Border Patrol Chief Gloria Chavez said in a statement. “Identity fraud is a common tactic used by TCOs to take advantage of migrants who do not know the legal consequences of their actions as they attempt to deceive authorities.”CBP said in a release that adults who falsely claim to be UACs can face charges of making false statements to federal agents and conspiracy to defraud the United States — as well as charges related to illegal entry.Officials say that El Paso Sector has so far detected more than 665 adults claiming to be children this fiscal year so far.
Officials said: “The individuals were questioned at the CPC after agents detected discrepancies between their story and the documentation they presented to pass as minors.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY