DOJ unveils unaccompanied migrant child smuggling scheme; 3 charged

[00:00:01]Tonight, a Justice Department cracked down on so-called super sponsors, those forcing traffic children to lie to the government and claim they are close relatives.

[00:00:12]>> Criminals calling themselves sponsors trafficked these children to the border, usually committing fraud to do so, and oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited.

[00:00:27]>> And the Justice Department there just announcing today they have charged three Guatemalan nationals accused of smuggling in more than a dozen of those unaccompanied migrant children. They are accused tonight of operating a wide-ranging conspiracy of a smuggling network out of Cleveland, Ohio. As we show you a live look there tonight, submitting fraudulent sponsorship applications for those unaccompanied children to the government. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanched says they have now identified more than 15,000 so-called super sponsor cases in the US similar to this one right here. And according to Homeland Security officials tonight, more than 146,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been located so far under the Trump administration.