Border Patrol starts fingerprinting migrant children and the left goes off

EL PASO, TX - MARCH 28: A group of 22 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and Salvador being held for processing underneath the Paso Del Norte Bridge wait to be transported on March 28, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has temporarily closed all highway checkpoints along the 268-mile stretch of border in the El Paso sector to try to stem a surge in illegal entry. (Photo by Christ Chavez/Getty Images)
(FILE PHOTO by Christ Chavez/Getty Images)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have reportedly begun collecting “biometric data” from illegal alien children, including fingerprints, to protect them from potential trafficking by smugglers.

“A Border Patrol official said this week that the agency had begun a pilot program to collect the biometrics of children with the permission of the adults accompanying them, though he did not specify where along the border it has been implemented,” the Associated Press confirmed last week.

Prior to stepping down from her post earlier this month, former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warned that smugglers were “recycling” illegal alien children by sending them back across the border into dangerous territory so they could be used to help illegal alien adults gain entry.

Such “recycling” operations are possible in part because of a disastrous omnibus spending bill signed into law last in February that empowers human traffickers like never before in American history.

Section 224(a) of the bill specifically says that none of the money allocated to the Department of Homeland Security may be used to detain or deport “a sponsor, potential sponsor, or member of a household of a sponsor or potential sponsor of an unaccompanied alien child.”

In other words, any migrant who crosses the border illegally with a child in stow cannot be touched by DHS and its sub-agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to Anthony Porvaznik, the chief patrol agent in Yuma, Arizona, illegal alien children are now essentially being “rented” (via the smugglers) by adults seeking entry into the states.

Listen to an interview he and another official gave to The Epoch Times:

CBP hopes to prevent this recycling/renting by keeping closer track of the illegal alien children it encounters. According to Porvaznik, the agency has also begun a “rapid DNA pilot program.”

“But that’s a very expensive program,” he said. “It’s very limited in scope right now. So what we’re relying on are fingerprints and photographs right now. And interviews that agents do with the kids.”

“But the problem is, when we have 1,000 people, 1,100 people in custody, really our goal is to get those people processed, because we have timelines, time-in-custody limits, where we need to move those people out of our custody.”

The trafficking of illegal alien children is a big problem but one that CBP’s clearly trying diligently to resolve as humanely as possible and with the limited resources at its disposal.

Some among the radical far-left have nevertheless chosen to attack the agency over its new fingerprinting and DNA programs by again drawing a false equivalence between it and Nazis.

Observe:

What remains unclear is whether Democrats will attempt to legally halt this policy. The AP warned that it wouldn’t be difficult to prove in a court of law that the policy is illegal.

“DHS may claim that they can get around this bar by getting parental permission, but that interpretation is subject to court challenge. To do this legally, DHS needs to go through the rulemaking process to change the regulation,” Cornell law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr said to the AP.

Karla Vargas, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, added that the argument could also be made that the parents who provided permission did so unwillingly.

“It’s never presented to immigrants as, ‘You have a choice of whether or not to sign this,'” she said.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

Congressional Democrats have displayed a great revulsion toward DHS and its sub-agencies, including CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Several have called for these agencies to be outright abolished. Others have pushed for them to simply be defunded.

In fact, nearly every Democrat senator running to be president has signed a letter sent by 2020 contender Sen. Kamala Harris demanding that the Senate’s homeland security and appropriations committees cut funding for ICE’s detention beds and cut funding for additional ICE hires.

Some Democrats have also called for defunding CBP.

It’s unclear whether Democrats are aware that, if successful, their efforts would make it that much harder for America’s immigration authorities to try and protect illegal alien children.

Their efforts would also make it more difficult for the authorities to root out immigration fraud.

“The Border Patrol says that in the last year, it’s stopped roughly 3,100 adults and children fraudulently posing as families so they can be released into the U.S. quickly rather than face detention or rapid deportation,” the AP noted.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE MISSING …

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Vivek Saxena

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