A Border Patrol Sector Chief claims children are essentially being “rented” by migrants looking to appear as family units after they illegally cross the U.S. border.

The Epoch Times reports that Yuma Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik said Border Patrol caught 550 fraudulent family units in the past six months.

“And we know we’ve missed many, many more, simply because we’re overwhelmed with the sheer numbers,” Porvaznik said on April 17. “And so those are kids that are being rented, for lack of a better word, to an adult to format a fraudulent family unit so that they can be released in the United States and then that child will be recycled back to its country of origin—usually Guatemala, in our case here in Yuma.”

Porvaznik said adults are also changing their birth certificates so they appear to be minors, making it easier for them to stay in the United States.

“So there’s a huge fraud problem that’s going on with this process,” said the sector chief.

Raul Ortiz, Border Patrol chief for Del Rio, Texas claims these forms of human trafficking are happening every day across the U.S. southern border.

“You can walk through any of our processing centers and you can see that there are potentially parents, or adults with children, that there may not be a familial relationship,” said Ortiz. “There’s probably many more cases like that happening across all nine southwest border sectors on any given day. Really, if you think about it, it’s human trafficking.”

The Times points out the disturbing trend has skyrocketed since 2014:

In 2014, fewer than 1 percent of all men apprehended by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had a child with them. That number now sits at 50 percent, according to Rodolfo Karisch, chief Border Patrol agent for that sector.

For the full report, click HERE.