Editor’s Note: This video makes mention of sexual abuse toward minors. Please read with discretion.

ICE officials revealed that innumerable children faced sex trafficking, forced labor, and other evils as nefarious actors moved them across the porous southern border in recent years.

The federal immigration agency warned that the “vulnerable children were released to sponsors in the United States without proper vetting” in many cases, while evidence shows that “some of the sponsors had paid smugglers to bring the children into the country or fraudulently claimed familial relationships.”

Department of Homeland Security authorities launched a nationwide initiative earlier this year to locate those children and verify their safety, and they have since discovered “alarming instances of abuse and exploitation.”

Homeland Security Investigations special agents have been executing welfare checks across the country to determine whether children are receiving proper care and to uncover possible instances of abuse.

Among other examples, agents found sponsors “in possession of child sexual abuse material, those who had forced minors into labor, and those who subjected them to living conditions that constituted neglect.”

Some cases involved illegal immigrant children who were impregnated by their sponsors, which indicated “the grave failures of previous vetting procedures and the dangerous consequences of placing minors in unsafe environments.”

“The previous administration’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards has allowed vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of criminals,” ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay reacted in a statement. “Our special agents are working tirelessly to locate these alien children, ensure their protection, and hold accountable those who have abused the system.”