Border agents in Texas find unaccompanied toddler abandoned near US-Mexico border
The two-year-old boy was not with any family members when border agents discovered him traveling with a group of 38 illegal immigrants near the Rio Grande and Roma, Texas, early Tuesday. (U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector)
ROMA, Texas - Border agents in Texas discovered an unaccompanied two-year-old boy abandoned by his family traveling with dozens of illegal immigrants who were crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on Tuesday, authorities said.
Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station (RGC) agents working near Roma, Texas, located the group of 38 illegal immigrants at 1:30 a.m., U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a news release.
Agents noticed the child, a Honduran national who had lost his shoe in the mud while crossing the Rio Grande, and questioned the group for information about the boy, CBP said.
However, officials said no one in the group claimed to know the child.
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Agents said they discovered a birth certificate on the unaccompanied boy with what appeared to be his father’s information handwritten on the back.
In the first six months of fiscal year 2022, officials said RGC agents encountered over 38,000 noncitizen unaccompanied children.
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"Many of the unaccompanied children encountered by Border Patrol are very young and unable to provide names or phone numbers of family members," CBP said. "To locate an NUC’s next of kin, agents must rely on information written on articles of clothing or handwritten notes found among their property."
Border patrol processed all members of the group accordingly.