Enforce the Law, Save the Children

The contours of a legitimate child abuse crisis are emerging through the Trump Administration’s robust effort to enforce the law. It is axiomatic that children are our future, but what that future turns out to be depends entirely on how those children are treated. The defining tragedy of the Biden immigration policy was the treatment of the vulnerable unaccompanied alien children (UAC). These children were smuggled by terrorist slaver cartels and some were forced to work to pay off debts. Some were forced to work dangerous jobs and were maimed or killed at the worksite.

Meanwhile, the then-Secretary of the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), Xavier Becerra, and the White House attempted to cover up the trafficking and punished whistleblowers. Now, the data is bearing this out as the Department of Labor (DOL) assessed over $37 million in civil monetary penalties (CMP) in FY25 on employers for child labor violations. This was more than double the FY24 child labor CMP and, indeed, a higher total than the previous four fiscal years combined, and it is the highest annual child labor CMP assessment since at least FY13 by a wide margin. 

While the child labor/abuse business model was thriving, another even darker trend emerged. The media-maligned mass deportations effort of the Trump Administration has also developed into a child rescue operation. Readers with a strong stomach are invited to read through the crimes of those arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Here is just a sample:

• Samuel Antonio Maldonado-Erazo was released into the United States in 2021 and is now charged with beating and killing his 3-year-old nephew.
• 414 criminal illegal alien child abusers were arrested in just Houston since January 2025 and are responsible for 761 child sex offenses. 
• Vaene Douangboupha of Laos was convicted of incest with a child. 
• Brayan Adiel Gramajo-Reyes has been indicted for luring UACs into hard labor. 
• Jose Alonso Argueta Perez was arrested for sexual fondling of a child. 
• David Campos-Nolazco has multiple arrests, including for indecent liberties and enticement of a minor for indecent purposes.
• Thiago Coelho Dos Santos has a laundry list of offenses against children, including possession of child sexual abuse material, possession of obscene child sexual abuse images, and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
• Akira Salinas-Ruiz murdered a toddler. 
• Miglan Elvin Alvarado-Martinez was convicted of assault on a child causing death. 
• Jonathan Jafet Lopez-Coronel was convicted of sexual abuse of a child and enticing a minor. 
• Victor Carrillo Ortega was convicted of sexually assaulting a child under 13. 
• Manuel Cruz-Ramirez was arrested in 2025 for rape, purchasing sex with a minor, and sexual abuse.
• Jose Guzman has previous convictions for lewd or lascivious acts by force with a child under 14.
• Lidio Santiz Julian and Hugo Lopez Diaz were indicted for multiple child exploitation offenses.
• Gerardo Aurelio Iturbide was charged with producing and distributing child sexual abuse material. 

This is an extremely small sample of the overall number of child abusers encountered by ICE during the Trump Administration’s effort to target “The Worst of the Worst.” It is an indictment of the open borders scam and exposes the claims of critics that they want a humane immigration policy. There is no humane policy that opens children to hard labor, sexual abuse, and wanton violence. When you ignore enforcement of the law, the most vulnerable people in society will pay the highest price. Also, keep in mind that studies show child abusers have a high rate of recidivism. The criminal alien molesters are likely going to abuse more children in the United States if they are not deported. 

All of these abused children will carry the scars for the rest of their lives. Those spending their childhood working hard labor are separated from their families and working for traffickers. Their developing minds are being shaped by callousness and/or indifference. More unlucky are the children exposed to direct violence or sexual abuse. They will experience trauma responses for the rest of their lives that will shape their interactions with peers.

And it is not simply the children who carry the pain of our policies. Studies show that abused children are more likely to commit crimes as adults. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found “being abused or neglected as a child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 59 percent, as an adult by 28 percent, and for a violent crime by 30 percent.” Children forced to work from a young age are more likely to drop out of school and not graduate from high school.  Studies show high school dropouts “were more likely to meet criteria for nicotine dependence and report daily cigarette use, and more likely to report having attempted suicide in the previous year, been arrested for larceny, assault, drug possession or drug sales relative to their high school graduate counterparts.”

However, we do not need studies to inform us of the universal truth that the abuse of children will create abusive adults. This cycle of violence is very real and easily observable in the world. It is also inescapable that open borders have served as a force multiplier for child abuse. Transient abusers found the United States to be a target-rich environment, and unscrupulous employers have treated alien children as the perfect cheap labor profit boost. 

Our immigration policies for decades have prioritized mass immigration with minimal vetting to boost GDP through labor abuse and arbitrage. This obsession with the economic benefit of cheap labor has blinded many to the attendant costs of their favored policy. Open borders and minimal interior enforcement create an environment where only the “Worst of the Worst” thrive. Criminal alien predators saw the United States as a sanctuary. Indeed, many cities and states have advertised themselves as sanctuaries for criminals. It is not shocking that many child predators accepted their invitation. 

While some employers have no qualms hiring vulnerable children and robbing them of their childhood for profit, it is the community around them that will pay for the future crimes of the children they destroyed. The Trump Administration’s immigration policies should be understood as a desperate attempt to reverse course before this child abuse crisis reaches critical mass. The removal operations attacked as inhumane are better understood as the thin red line standing against the child abuse epidemic in the United States. We see it in child labor enforcement data and in the laundry list of child abusers arrested by ICE. If the United States does not cut off the abuse at the root with harsh penalties for all child abusers, including the unscrupulous employers, then the bleak assembly line of abuse will churn out more and more scarred and broken children.