U.S. Border Patrol agents in one region of the U.S.-Mexico border say there is a new trend of fraud emerging among people caught illegally entering the country between official entryways.
Agents in the El Centro Sector, which spans from eastern California to western Arizona, in September began to see single adults claiming to be minors or part of families when they are apprehended for illegal entry, according to government data obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Since Sept. 8, agents have uncovered 29 attempts of adults pretending to be a part of a family, whether as the other parent or as one of the teenage children.
“They are claiming to be an adult dad with a minor child. And in fact, they are both adults and it’s not a minor,” said Gloria Chavez, the top official for the El Centro Sector, during a recent press conference in Calexico, Calif. “And in conversations in interviews, we are able to determine that fact, that they are not related, there is no familial relationship. These are just two individuals that know the system, so then they made that up.”
“Through those conversations, the agents realized that they were Mexican nationals because they didn’t have a lot of that information, and eventually they admitted to being Mexican nationals with residency obviously in Mexico,” she said.
“The vast majority of the fraudsters have been Guatemalan or Honduran citizens,” David Kim, assistant chief in the El Centro Sector, wrote in an email.
Kim said agents also had two adult Mexican men claim to be from Guatemala.
The trend is exclusive to this part of the border, which is one of nine sectors along the 2,000-mile stretch of land. El Centro spans 71 miles of the southern border. In fiscal 2018, agents apprehended 29,230 people who entered between the ports of entry, or an average of 2,500 per month.
Although the numbers represent just a few dozen incidents, the sector chief said these are just the ones that agents caught.
She added that those lying about familial relations or nationality are likely doing so because they understand that under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and Flores settlement agreement, children under 18 and families generally will not be prosecuted for illegal entry and will go through asylum proceedings.
Chavez said people making fraudulent claims were attempting “to take advantage of the immigration loopholes that exist.”
“We started seeing that they were claiming to be from another country like Guatemala because they knew that for Guatemala, a family unit stays with us in custody through processing for 20 days and then they’re able to walk out, given a notice to appear and released into the United States,” Chavez said.
Due to the Department of Homeland Security’s lack of resources to house tens of thousands of people who have applied for asylum following illegal entry at the southern border in fiscal 2018, officials release asylum seekers from federal custody and give them a date to show up for their hearing, usually one to three years down the road.
