Illegal immigrant youth targeted by gangs

by Guy Page

Human trafficking for sex is one of the fastest-growing criminal enterprises in America and migrants are among the most-targeted victims, a news report today says.

“Biden’s border policies have led to an explosion in the forced prostitution of migrant boys and girls in the U.S.,” the Free Press reports today in a byline story by Madeleine Rowley. 

This story could just be dismissed as pre-election fear-mongering by the typically conservative Free Press (not to be confused with Vermont’s Burlington Free Press), an online platform featuring coverage by Bari Weiss and others. 

However, Biden’s own Agency of Homeland Security reported last year that gangs in the Houston area are targeting minors in Houston. Human trafficking with a view to brutal employment of all kinds – including prostitution – is the focus of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, mentioned below in a Homeland Security press release. 

“Trafficking in persons is a form of modern-day slavery and a particular problem in the SDTX with its many miles of border with Mexico,” the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance says on its website. 

Quoted verbatim below from a Homeland Security press release:

On Sept. 8, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston, FBI Houston, the Houston Police Department and partner agencies from the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance announced the results of a multiagency operation that ran from Aug. 28 through Sept. 7 and targeted known human traffickers involved in the sex trafficking of minors in an area of Houston known as “the Bissonnet Track.”

Ten human traffickers were arrested during the operation, including four documented gang members and six gang associates. All 10 individuals were arrested pursuant to federal arrest warrants and are charged with various crimes such as sex trafficking of minors, sex trafficking of minors by force and conspiracy to sex traffic minors.

“The sex trafficking of minors, and human trafficking as a whole, is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the U.S.,” said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson. “Approximately one-quarter of all individuals who are being trafficked for sex in the U.S. are minors. Human trafficking organizations target minors and other vulnerable or marginalized populations because they are easier to manipulate and control. By working together with our partner agencies from the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance to combat this growing problem, we are better postured to disrupt and dismantle the organizations behind the sex trafficking of minors and connect the victims with the services they need to recover.”

“Numerous young girls will no longer be raped, sexually exploited and beaten by the individuals arrested during this operation thanks to the efforts made by our partners at the Houston Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the agencies who make up the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance,” said FBI Houston acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez. “Tragically, hundreds more underage sex trafficking victims won’t be rescued because we do not know about them. Without the public’s help, tormented sex trafficking victims remain in the clutches of manipulative criminals who seek only to enrich themselves at the expense of vulnerable juveniles.”