How the 'Faux Family' Scam Really Works; An Interview on the Front Line
By Todd Bensman on May 29, 2019
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Like the gold rushes of yesteryear, the ongoing population transfer from Central America over the U.S. southern border, which is emptying whole Guatemalan villages, started with a nugget of news about an irresistible discovery in America. After building for several years, word quickly spread in the fall of 2018 and spawned gold fever. The discovery was that the U.S. immigration system had this catch-and-release loophole only for parents with children. Those in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who reach the southern border with at least one biological child under 18 and start an asylum claim (for which most are ineligible) would breeze through a short detention anyway to live in the land of prosperity, forever, not least because the U.S. government is loath to deport families in front of television cameras.
By January 2019, every child of Central America was a prized Golden Ticket to a lifetime in America, with a premium get-out-of-detention-free card. Unverified stories, rumors really, began swirling among Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the media that some of the children didn't belong to the adults claiming them, that they were being "recycled" back and forth over the border with different paying adults, or even kidnapped for the crossing. The term "rent-a-kid" circulated with implications that a terrible, commoditized child abuse was making this economic migrant rush on the border possible.
https://cis.org/Bensman/How-Faux-Family-Scam-Really-Works-Interview-Front-Line
