00:00For years, open border policies threatened the security of our nation and put countless lives
00:06at risk. Under President Trump's leadership, the Department of Justice is working alongside
00:12HHS and DHS to secure the border and protect American communities. There's a lot of ways that
00:21we do this. It includes punishing those who exploited the system and smuggled unaccompanied
00:26children across the border during the prior administration. More than 475,000 unaccompanied
00:35children entered the United States during the Biden administration. 475,000. Over 300,000
00:46cannot be accounted for at the end of 2024. The way that this happened was typically because
00:55the criminals, calling themselves sponsors, trafficked these children to the border, usually
01:02committing fraud to do so. And oftentimes, the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly
01:08exploited. In some cases, individuals would sponsor multiple children, which required them
01:15to lie to government personnel and on government forms, claiming they were close relatives when
01:21in fact they were not. They would use fake or stolen identities and make other false claims during
01:27the application process in order to obtain custody of the children.
01:34I think I'm stating the obvious, that when government fails to protect our borders, it is the most vulnerable
01:41who suffer. And this department and this administration has zero tolerance for unlawful activity and is
01:47committed to protecting children who suffered the consequences of open borders. Today, we are
01:54announcing the indictments of three individuals, Maritza Kawik Koch, her brother, Carlos Augustin Kawik Koch,
02:04and Gladys Marina Kalchen. This was out of the Northern District of Ohio. All three are illegal aliens from
02:12Guatemala, who allegedly took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle more than a dozen children
02:18into the United States by scamming the system and exploiting the loopholes created by the last
02:23administration. This is one example, one indictment, but it is not unique. There are over 15,500 super
02:32sponsor cases that we have identified along with DHS. And again, these super sponsor cases are when somebody
02:41sponsors more than three children unrelated and their unaccompanied minors that come in the United
02:48States. I also want to announce today, from the same district in Ohio, the Northern District,
02:54the sentencing of another criminal illegal alien who was convicted, also from Guatemala. He was a 27-year-old
03:01man who came to the United States, smuggled in a 14-year-old child by submitting false paperwork and lying
03:10on the
03:10forms, claiming to be her brother, proceeded to sexually assault this young woman. And these two
03:19cases, while only two, help explain how what was going on is really the stuff of nightmares.
03:27Now, these charges brought by the Department of Justice show the important partnership between HHS
03:34and DHS and with the Department of Justice. All of us are going after those who illegally brought
03:41children to this country.
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