If you’ve ever been in a dialogue about illegal immigration, you have probably heard the standard line that those who come across our southern border illegally are all upstanding people who just want better lives for their families. What if I told you that the people who smuggle illegals across the border are actively putting their children in harm’s way to keep from being caught? A groundbreaking investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation uncovered this shocking trend.
Goliad County, Texas might not be directly on the border, but Sheriff Roy Boyd encounters human trafficking all too often. He explained that smugglers will intentionally keep their children in the car when transporting illegal immigrants in order to provide “cover” for their crimes. Sheriff Boyd explains, “For them, it’s all about cover when it gets stopped. Totally pretend like they’re out doing something legitimate… And a lot of times when we encounter them, they’ll tell their kids to lay down and pretend to be asleep or sometimes the kids will be asleep because they left the house at one o’clock in the morning.”
Sheriff Boyd isn’t the only sheriff noticing this problem. In Pinal County, Arizona, a smuggler was stopped with her five-month-old and one-year-old in the car. To avoid capture, the woman chose to flee police. In the ensuing police chase, the woman attempted to ram law enforcement vehicles with her car, all while her children were in the back seat. As Sheriff Mark Lamb explained, “These human smuggling attempts are incredibly dangerous for all involved, including law enforcement, the general public, those being trafficked illegally and, unfortunately in this case, innocent children.”
Illegal immigration across our southern border is not a victimless crime. Innocent Americans and even the illegal immigrants themselves are put at risk when lax immigration policies encourage dangerous attempts to cross the southern border. The only compassionate course of action our federal government could take is to do everything within our power to prevent these border crossings. No more innocent children should be put at risk to advance the political agenda of the radical left. Stop illegal immigration now.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/national-sovereignty/immigration/smugglers-are-using-children-for-illegal-immigration/