Ernst says human smugglers 'taunting' law enforcement by 'brutally' raping young girls at border, urges action

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, says border agents are concerned by the alarming number of young girls who are being "brutally" raped and assaulted by human smugglers as they trek across the southern border, and is demanding the Biden administration to take immediate action to stop these "heartbreaking" crimes.

Ernst detailed the "appalling" actions of cartel-backed "coyote" smugglers during an interview with Fox News Digital Tuesday. The senator traveled down to the Texas-Mexico border over the weekend with a delegation led by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and other leading lawmakers.

Ernst said the senators were told that human smugglers and coyotes assisting the cartels are perpetuating these horrific crimes of sexual abuse toward over half of young girls as they make the journey, often unaccompanied, across the southern border to the U.S.

"The Border Patrol, they told us that about 30% of the women and girls that are being trafficked by the cartels up to the border are being sexually abused along the way. And those are just the ones that are reporting. And so the Border Patrol agents feel that 60% of them having been abused would be a more accurate number. So it really is appalling," Ernst told Fox News.