SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The former top Border Patrol agent for the San Diego area testified at a hearing on the border crisis that pimps were taking advantage of young female migrants after they were released into shelters.
“They were given a phone number to call and then a recruiter would come down often from Oakland or Los Angeles and pick them up. These young women were then brought up and forced into prostitution,” Former chief patrol agent Aaron Heitke said.
Heitke told the Republican-led House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that it was one of the most shocking things he saw while working in the San Diego sector before retiring last year.
“We started to see recruiters in Mexico that would go around within the Tijuana area … and recruit teenage women to come to the United States,” he said, adding the minors would claim they were unaccompanied once they arrived on U.S. soil.
155,000 migrants released on San Diego streets
Heitke told lawmakers he didn’t have the proper resources to follow up with the trafficked victims “because we were inundated with so many people we couldn’t follow up.”
Republicans at the Homeland Security Committee set the tone for the hearing Wednesday before it started by calling it “A Country Without Borders: How Biden-Harris’ Open-Borders Policies Have Undermined Our Safety and Security.”
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond testified over 155,000 migrants were dropped off on county streets from September 2023 – June 2024 after crossing illegally.
“This is not an isolated incident. This is a daily reality in San Diego County. Border Patrol has become their Uber driver from the border into the City of San Diego and San Diego County has become their nationwide travel agents at the taxpayers’ expense.”
In June, with the border becoming a hot-button election issue following record numbers of illegal crossings, the Biden administration introduced a sweeping crackdown on asylum seekers.
The move has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of migrants arriving at the southern border, according to new numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
