Traffickers Exploit Illegal Child Labor With Social Security Fraud; Minor Forced to Pay Back 'Debt'

Traffickers Exploiting Illegal Child Labor with Social Security Fraud; Underage Migrant: ‘I Started Working’ to Pay Cartel Debt … ‘I Cannot Work Legally Here’ • Frander, Male Migrant: “I cannot work legally here...It's a small piece of paper that you get to be able to apply for jobs. A social security [card]. You just call the person, and he comes to your home and brings it.” • Frander says he was forced to pay “$150” to obtain a fake social security card. • Underage Female Migrant: “When I got here [to the United States], I began studying, and then working. I went to school for six months. From a year ago, I began working…I go in [to work] at 4PM and get out at 2AM.” • Underage Male Migrant: You go to work “wherever they take you.” • Tara Lee Rodas, Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency: “I think most people believe, and I originally thought, that sponsors were families because HHS says, ‘We’re reuniting children with their families.’ In fact, that’s not the case.” • Rodas: “This is a terrible thing, and then you look at some of these children who are teenagers, who’ve never been to school, can’t read, can’t write. It’s a very wicked thing to take advantage of these children.” [WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nov. 30, 2022] Project Veritas released a new video today which shows several migrants detailing their experiences upon arriving in the United States. These individuals said they were removed from school, put through forced labor, and even provided with fake social security cards -- all of this to pay off debts to cartels. “When I got here [to the United States], I began studying, and then working. I went to school for six months. From a year ago, I began working…I go in [to work] at 4PM and get out at 2AM,” an underage female migrant said. Frander, who is a male migrant, said he “cannot work legally” in the United States, but since he was forced to pay “$150” for “a small piece of paper that you get to be able to apply for jobs – a social security [card],” he has been able to work. “You just call the person, and he comes to your home and brings it [fake social security card],” Frander explained. Another underage male migrant even stated that migrants go to work “wherever they take you,” referring to the cartels / traffickers. Tara Lee Rodas, the whistleblower who approached Project Veritas from within the federal government to expose all of this, said she was horrified by what has been taking place. “I think most people believe, and I originally thought, that sponsors were families because HHS says, ‘We’re reuniting children with their families.’ In fact, that’s not the case,” Rodas said. “This is a terrible thing, and then you look at some of these children who are teenagers, who’ve never been to school, can’t read, can’t write. It’s a very wicked thing to take advantage of these children,” she said.