Why does Donald Trump want the boarders closed?
I haven't heard anything bad about the boarder being open. Is there anything going on down there? All the bad things I've heard about is all from Trump (ie. People eatting cats and dogs.) Is there actually any trouble?
The questions above were asked by Redditor Ifyouliveinadream in the popular Reddit community, r/Ask_Politics. The logic follows that if Donald Trump was desperate enough to spin a sensational story about Haitian immigrants feasting on felines, there couldn’t possibly be anything bad going on down south. According to commentators, who dug up a plethora of evidence in support of Donald Trump’s concern, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Replies included worries surrounding job security for American citizens, criminal activity, and the maintenance of rule of law. These have been foundational talking points for closed-border advocates. Recently, after a disturbing DHS report, a new issue is at hand: missing children.
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security has raised concerns regarding the status of unaccompanied migrant children (UCs). UCs are defined as someone who is under 18 years of age, has no lawful immigration status in the United States, and either lacks parental or legal guardians in the United States or has guardians who are unable to provide care and physical custody. During the DHS’s audit to assess ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released to the U.S Department of Human Services (HHS), the department learned that ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS from 2019 to 2023 but could not account for the location of those who were released and had failed to appear in immigration court. Where did they go?
J.D. Vance spoke on this issue during the vice-presidential debate, speculating that the missing migrant children could have easily fallen victim to human trafficking, a growing issue in the country due to the gaps in border protection. Fact-checkers jumped on the opportunity to refute his statement, citing the DHS management alert upon which Vance made his assumption. Experts assert that Vance’s conjecture is a stretch but, regardless of the vice-presidential candidate’s premature position, the facts are distressing. Either migrant children have been trafficked or they are lost, unaccompanied in new and unknown territory without family or supervision. If hoping for the absence of the first, the latter conclusion is not especially comforting.
Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative crimes in the nation-–its second-fastest growing criminal industry-–and flimsy border security provides a pool of potential victims on which the smugglers can prey. Those who take the risk of crossing illegally without the protection and guidance of the government make themselves vulnerable to traffickers both during their journey and even after their arrival on U.S. soil. A 2023 report from the State Department concludes that 72% of human trafficking victims within the U.S. are immigrants, primarily women and children.
That number could now be higher, especially when taking into account the statistics of illegal immigration since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims that, in the last four years of the Biden-Harris administration, there have been over 10 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide in total, with over 8.2 million encounters at the southern border, and roughly 2 million illegal immigrants who evaded U.S. Border Control. When considering these facts, and considering the number of UCs who are unaccounted for after crossing the border, it is not a “stretch” to conclude that these missing children could be among the 72%.
Vance’s comments have riled up members of his party, giving Republican voters yet another reason to advocate for stronger border security. The famed caricature of the xenophobic, heartless Conservative is challenged by the uptick in Republican politicians focusing their pro-border stance on the issue of human trafficking of illegal immigrants. Bob Latta of Ohio’s 5th congressional district commented, “With the release of this DHS report, the pressing question remains: where are these missing children? It is deeply disturbing that, according to the report, Immigration and Customs Enforcement have 'no assurance' these missing immigrant children are 'safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” Senator Blackburn of Tennessee addressed the issue last year with the “SAVE Girls” Act, an effort to prevent the smuggling of young girls across the border and those who have been smuggled already from being brought into the U.S.—or out.
Representatives fighting for tougher border security such as Latta, Blackburn, and Vance, seek to do so with these women and children in mind. The most moral and righteous motive to strengthen the borders is the protection of migrant women and children from being sold into sex slavery. If securing the border isn’t already a bi-partisan issue, now would be the time for unison.
