The tragedy of human trafficking is the toll it exacts on the kids of aspirational Indians willing to do whatever it takes to immigrate to the US. According to data acquired from US Customs and Border Police (USCB), 1,109 unaccompanied minors may have been discovered stranded close to US borders between October 2019 and March 2023.
According to the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, unaccompanied children (UAC) are undocumented immigrant children who come into the country without a parent or a legal guardian.
The USCB figures suggest a nearly eight-fold rise in UACs found on the US borders. In February 2023, as many as 14 kids, who did not have any documents, were found on the US border. While 13 were found wandering on the US-Mexico border, one was found near the US-Canada border.
The US fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. On March 1, 2022, media outlets announced that human traffickers had developed a new method of operation. The thieves used unrelated youngsters and adult migrants to pass as a family and cross the border. According to Gujarat police, if the attempt was successful, the kids' presence would guarantee that the US administration would give them asylum.
Closing the investigation on human smuggling rackets in Gujarat, police said,“The adults and children undertake the perilous journey to the US-Mexico border. Before crossing it, the immigration agents pair one man, one woman, and two children –all unrelated to each other – to form a fraudulent family. If caught at the border, they present themselves as a family unit and seek asylum in the US. The American government sends them to a detention centre where the immigrants are given refugee cards. Ultimately, they get citizenship with legal aid from attorneys there.