Texas is on the front lines of a devastating border crisis that has become more than just an illegal immigration issue. Human trafficking has surged, leaving historic devastation and atrocities in its wake.

Just last month, charges were finally brought against some of those responsible for the deaths of 53 people who were smuggled into the country in a tractor trailer — a tragedy described as America’s “deadliest human smuggling event.” Shortly after, the Texas Department of Public Safety helped to arrest a human trafficker as he attempted to smuggle 15 illegal immigrants into Eagle Pass, Texas.

And these events represent just a tiny drop in the bucket.

What makes this a devastating humanitarian crisis is the fact that many of those being trafficked are unaccompanied minors. Back in 2018 (before the Biden border crisis), the National Institutes of Health estimated that “between 75-80% of newly arriving unaccompanied children are victims of human trafficking, as they travel into the U.S. with smugglers who then sell them into forced labor or prostitution.”

This estimation is even more terrifying when one considers that during fiscal year 2022, “immigration authorities encountered more than 152,000 unaccompanied minors at or near the U.S.-Mexico border.” At the time, this number was considered an “all time high,” and it’s only gotten higher since then.

And yet, the Biden administration that invited this crisis doesn’t seem to care all that much about the related atrocities that have occurred, as the border remains open and human trafficking continues. Administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, even continue to encourage illegal immigration with false promises and outright denials of the problems this crisis is creating. It seems they’re willing to sacrifice anything — and anyone — to protect their administration’s narrative and agenda.

It's no secret that vulnerable women and children are being abused and exploited by the criminals who are taking advantage of Biden’s lawless open border policies to make a quick buck in human trafficking.

Even the New York Times highlighted what they called “the hidden nightmare of sexual violence on the border,” detailing how vulnerable women are expected to pay for cartel smuggling services with the only things they may have to offer — themselves or their children. Specifically, their bodies. Yes, even the children’s.

This is a standard of currency in what has become a multibillion-dollar child trafficking industry that is being facilitated by our own federal government.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services whistleblower recently called the Biden administration a “middleman” in the child trafficking industry, telling Congress that “today, children will be sold for sex” at our nation’s southern border and in the great state of Texas.

The whistleblower, Tara Lee Rodas, explained how child victims are “being recruited in their home country” by criminals who cite the Biden administration’s false promises and open border policies as incentives. Once they’re trafficked into the United States, some of these child victims find that our own HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement places them with so-called “sponsors” who are actually “criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations” who “view children as commodities and assets to be used for earning income.”

Is this the America we want? Is this the Texas we want? Is this the compassion and greatness for which our nation is known?

As the daughter of legal immigrants, I have a special place in my heart for those who seek a better, freer, and fuller life in this great nation. But what’s happening at our southern border isn’t compassion or greatness. It’s a travesty — and the Biden administration bears full blame.

Tina Blum Cohen is a Republican candidate running to represent Texas's 7th congressional district in the U.S. Congress.