Child Immigration Crisis: FBI Warns Families About Scam Targeting Immigrant Children

As the debate continues about what to do with the wave of immigrant children crossing the border into the United States, FBI officials report a scam that's targeting families in the child immigration crisis.

Scammers are reportedly telling people who may have children who crossed the border illegally that they represent non-profit organizations looking to reunite children with their families. Scammers then use that connection for unlawful purposes.

There are estimates that put the number of children crossing borders alone in the range of a hundred thousand. That number may increase to reach more than 200,000 in total between 2014 and 2015.

The FBI say another ploy to target immigrants involves calling from a phony telephone number that looks like it's coming from San Antonio, one of the other cities in Texas that is being used to house recently arrived immigrant children.  

The scammers then tell people they require travel expenses to reunite the children with their families.

Law enforcement officials say that families have already been asked to pay anywhere from $300 to several thousand to these scam artists.

That total is in addition to the money that some families have already had to pay to have the children smuggled here in the first place. It's often thousands of dollars that families have to pay for children to be brought from Central America to the Mexico border and on into the United States.

According to reports the U.S. has increased its efforts in returning children who have come over the border, sending about 40 back to countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, since late last week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been more vocal in announcing when undocumented immigrants are returned, especially those with children.

The agency offered this update in a recent statement: "On July 14, a group of adults with children who recently crossed the border were returned to Central America. As President Obama, the Vice President, and Secretary Johnson have said, our border is not open to illegal migration and we will send recent illegal migrants back.

We expect additional migrants will be returned to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in the coming days and weeks, based on the results of removal proceedings or expedited removal. These returns are a result of the President's direction to surge resources such as immigration judges and asylum officers to process these cases more quickly."