Rescuing trafficked children shouldn’t be controversial. It is

The SVI represents one of the most significant humanitarian efforts undertaken by the Trump administration and DHS in recent years. Developed in partnership with state and local law enforcement through the long-established 287(g) program, SVI seeks to locate unaccompanied minor children who were released to sponsors and ensure their safety. Its mission is remarkably straightforward: to conduct welfare checks on alien children who arrived at the border unaccompanied and were later released into the United States, verifying that they are not being exploited by traffickers, abusive sponsors, or criminal organizations.The SVI program recognizes that safeguarding child welfare, although a continuing obligation of the federal government, cannot be accomplished alone. Through the 287(g) partnership, trained state and local law enforcement officers, who bring critical knowledge of their communities, support these efforts by verifying addresses, identifying indicators of abuse or trafficking, and ensuring that children in need of intervention are protected. One might assume such an effort would receive broad praise from all Americans. After all, protecting children from exploitation should not be controversial. But that is not the world we live in anymore.Instead, the mainstream media largely ignored ICE’s new initiative, while advocacy groups on the Left and progressive media outlets criticized it.Only in today’s deeply polarized and anti-law enforcement climate could an effort to locate potentially trafficked and/or abused children be portrayed as something other than a victory for the rule of law and human dignity.The initiative exists because the Trump Administration, including Secretary Markwayne Mullin and border czar Tom Homan, is addressing a crisis that never should have occurred in the first place.During President Joe Biden’s term, nearly 450,000 unaccompanied alien children were released to “sponsors” inside the United States. Under the Trump administration, DHS, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services have since located more than 146,000 unaccompanied minors. In many cases, those placements occurred without adequate vetting or sufficient follow-up. The scale of the surge overwhelmed the government’s ability to ensure children’s safety after release.The consequences were devastating.According to DHS, sponsors identified through recent investigations and arrests have included individuals accused or convicted of rape, murder, and other violent crimes. One particularly horrific case occurred in Texas, where ICE arrested a Guatemalan sponsor for human trafficking and statutory rape after authorities discovered he had impregnated the unaccompanied 14-year-old girl placed in his custody.These are the predictable consequences of a system that prioritizes rapid release over any other outcome.This is precisely why ICE’s new initiative matters. While the mainstream media and progressive activists will never applaud the Trump administration or ICE, the American people should.Reasonable people can disagree about immigration policy. They can debate border security, asylum law, or the appropriate scope of immigration enforcement, but saving and rescuing children should never be up for debate.Those who regularly describe themselves as champions of human dignity and defenders of so-called “undocumented” aliens should welcome efforts to identify children who have fallen into abusive situations, rather than reflexively opposing such measures simply because they are carried out by ICE.Protecting vulnerable children from traffickers is among the most important humanitarian responsibilities any law enforcement agency can perform.MAKE TRUMP’S BORDER POLICIES PERMANENTThe fact that the legacy media and groups on the Left will never support these commonsense policies from the Trump administration, even when it’s saving children from the horrors of sex and labor trafficking, says far more about them than it does the men and women of ICE, who carry out these duties every day.ICE shouldn’t be defunded — it should be supported in carrying out one of government’s most fundamental responsibilities: protecting the innocent.Chad F. Wolf serves as Chair of Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as acting Secretary of Homeland Security during President Trump’s first term.Tony Pham serves as a Senior Fellow at the America First Policy Institute. Pham previously served as the acting Director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Trump’s first term and subsequently as the Assistant Secretary for Border Security and Immigration Policy under President Trump’s second term.