Migrant ‘rents’ boy to cross border as fake family, says DOJ

A Guatemalan man allegedly paid about $130 to “rent” an eight-year-old boy after he was told it would be “easier to get into the United States with a child.” Guatemalan migrant Maynor Velasquez Molina allegedly paid an additional 1,000 quetzales, or $130 USD, to have a false birth certificate made for the boy, according to a criminal complaint. Velasquez was interviewed by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, where he admitted the boy was rented in Guatemala. He was indicted on human-smuggling charges by a federal grand jury on March 27. Anthony Porvaznik, Border Patrol Chief of Yuma, Arizona: "And so those are kids that are being rented for lack of a better word, to an adult to format a fraudulent family unit so that they can be released into the United States. And then that child be recycled back to its country of origin - Usually Guatemala in our case here in Yuma." The DHS said there had been a 315 percent increase in the number of fraudulent family unit cases between October 2017 and February 2018. Under a new pilot program from President Donald Trump’s administration, the DHS will next week begin administering DNA tests to migrant families, to prove family status.