Democrats have added one new subject for their attacks on Donald Trump. They claim he doesn’t care about the abuse and sex trafficking of the children of illegal immigrants. They say his administration is letting horrible things happen to the children as part of his attempt to secure the border.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement allegedly lost track of 1,475 illegal immigrant children in 2017. Some critics claimed they’d wound up with sex traffickers or abusers. Typical is writer Monica Byrne’s outraged article. She declared losing track of the children “almost certainly means they are being trafficked. This will rank as one of the greatest atrocities in our nation’s history. And that’s saying something.”

The mainstream media went after Trump with stories of small children being torn away from their families or put into children’s detention centers hundreds of miles away from their parents. A social media campaign asked #WhereAreTheChildren.

Where Are the Children?

It would be horrible, if true. But what really happens with these children?

When illegal immigrants with children are caught crossing the border, the children are turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services. Because of previous court decisions, the parents must be put into detention, but the children can’t be imprisoned like their parents. The children are then placed into the homes of sponsors related to the children. Most are placed with relatives.

Trump is making an effort to prosecute the adult illegal immigrants. He wants them to return to their homes. He also wants to discourage more adults from trying to enter the U.S. with their families. 

Unfortunately, prosecuting people trying to sneak into the country results in children being separated from their parents. Trump says the problem is not his policy. It’s he Democrats’ refusal to close a loophole in the law. It prohibits families from being deported together to their home countries.

Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

But a top HHS official says the children are not “lost.” Once placed with the sponsors — who are, remember, usually family — HHS no longer has any legal responsibility for them. They were not even required to make the 30-day follow-up calls they’re now making.

HHS knows where they are. Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan said their sponsors simply have not responded yet to phone calls. He said many sponsors don’t return the phone calls because they are illegal immigrants themselves. They’re afraid they’ll be arrested if they let the government know where they are.

More Fake News

The frenzy continued when photos appeared of children in detention centers. One image that went viral showed two children lying on a pad on a cement floor behind a chain fence. They looked like they were locked in a cage in a animal shelter.

For Democrats, it seemed the perfect symbol of Trump’s heartlessness. They began denouncing Trump in press releases, speeches, and on Facebook and Twitter. But then it came out that the photo was taken in 2014. It was taken during Obama’s tenure, showing the action of his HHS. The Democrats quickly deleted their tweets.

The truth is, Trump has aggressively gone after those who abuse children. Every few days, DOJ announces another prosecution of child sex traffickers. His administration recognizes the scourge of child sex trafficking. Around 25 percent of sex trafficking victims are children. Pimps make more money selling children for sex than they do adults. 

In February 2017, just after he entered office, Trump signed a Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking. It called for strengthening enforcement and making it a high priority.

The president declared January 2018 National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Ivanka Trump hosted a roundtable at the White House on human trafficking earlier this month.

Stings

That’s not all. One of the government’s biggest sting operations under Trump has been Operation Cross Country XI. Last October, the FBI arrested 120 traffickers and rescued 84 children. It targeted pimps. It involved 55 FBI field offices, including 78 Child Exploitation Task Forces, along with 500 other law enforcement agencies across multiple states.

The FBI broke up a child sex trafficking ring in Ohio and Indiana earlier this year. The ring targeted young, vulnerable girls, such as runaways. They coaxed them into taking sexually explicit photos. They posted the photos to the adult sections classified ads websites such as the website Backpage. When people responded to the ads, the girls would be taken to a motel to meet with them.

The DOJ cracked down on Backpage for permitting these type of ads. Of all the child sex-trafficking cases The National Center on Missing and Exploited Children has handled, 73 percent involved Backpage.com. The CEO of Backpage pled guilty to human trafficking charges. He will serve up to five years in prison.

Some on the left didn’t respond favorably. The Women’s March called the DOJ’s seizure an “absolute crisis for sex workers who rely on the site to safely get in touch with clients.” Backpage issued a statement that said in part, “The shutdown of Backpage’s adult classified advertising is an assault on the First Amendment.”

Criticize Trump for many things, but not for his record combating child sex trafficking and child abuse. And he didn’t lose almost 1,500 children to sex traffickers and abusers. 

Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC.