Attorney General Pam Bondi used a Thursday press conference in Florida to outline what she called one of the most troubling tactics in the growing human smuggling trade: criminal groups posing as family units by moving children back and forth across the border.
Bondi announced the expansion of Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), a Justice Department partnership with federal law enforcement agencies, now broadened to include the nation’s northern and maritime borders. She described the work as urgent, citing cases where smugglers have put children in extraordinary danger.
“These operations are getting people killed,” Bondi said. “The cost of human smuggling is huge. So many families are dying.”
According to Bondi, traffickers have used children as “props” to gain easier entry into the United States. She described one particularly disturbing case from last fall in Yuma, Arizona, where border patrol agents repeatedly saw the same young boy crossing the border with different groups of adults, each claiming to be his parents. Agents called him a “recycled child.”
“These cartels are exploiting kids, cycling them through again and again, just so criminals can get in posing as a family unit,” Bondi said. “We don’t know where many of these children’s parents are, and that’s why it’s so difficult to untangle.”
The attorney general pointed to other examples: in Texas, children drugged with THC to keep them quiet while being smuggled; one child overdosed so severely that hospitalization was required. And in Canada, a family of four froze to death in a blizzard after smugglers abandoned them in sub-zero weather, the father found clutching his toddler in a futile attempt to keep him warm.
Bondi said just this week, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments against 12 defendants accused of running a multimillion-dollar smuggling ring that moved people from Cuba into the U.S. The group allegedly coached clients—including minors sent alone—on how to pose as legitimate travelers.
“They charged up to $40,000 per victim,” Bondi said. “They used Zelle to transfer $7 million, and their profits were as high as $18 million.”
Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, JTFA has charged 56 defendants, according to Bondi. She said the expanded force will now include agents from the DEA, ATF, and FBI, with additional resources directed at preventing smugglers from using children as shields.
“We will not rest until those who profit from the suffering of vulnerable people—especially unaccompanied children—face justice,” Bondi said. “These cartels are a threat not just to the United States, but globally.”
