Texas Border: Migrant Smugglers Keep Lawmen Busy During Holiday Season
Texas officers find 10-year-old migrant boy abandoned in Maverick County
Migrant Smugglers are staying busy into the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend - and so are US Authorities - along the Texas Border with Mexico. Maverick County has been a hotspot for human smuggling with groups of 100+ regularly crossing the Rio Grande there for some time now - and the 2024 Thanksgiving Holidays have been no exception.
At 3:30 AM on the morning after Thanksgiving Day, US Border Patrol Agents had their hands full with a group of 289 migrants who illegally crossed the river border there from Mexico into Texas. Seven of those were from Iran - which raises additional security concerns.
The night before Thanksgiving, Texas State Troopers encountered a group of 22 migrants who had crossed the Rio Grande illegally into Maverick County. Ten of those were children.
As for Thanksgiving Day itself, Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers found themselves in the middle of a heartbreaking scene - again in Maverick County - when they encountered a ten-year-old boy from El Salvador- alone and crying- after his Cartel "smuggling guide" abandoned him in a remote area.
DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez posted news of the child's plight not long after the encounter with his officers - one that likely saved the boy's life:
"As many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with our families & friends. Let’s not forget many children will not get to enjoy the holidays or see their families because they have been placed in a dire situation due to open border conditions, and many more who are trafficked across the southern border are exploited and exposed to a dangerous criminal environment during their journey to the US. "
"This morning, Texas DPS Troopers found a 10-year-old boy from El Salvador who was brought across the border in Maverick County by a smuggling guide who left him behind. The child was crying and told troopers a smuggling guide left him behind and that he was lost. The child only had a phone and stated his parents were in the US. The child was turned over to the US Border Patrol." -Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety (Thanksgiving Day, 2024)
This migrant boy's story is not an isolated one. Cartel smugglers frequently abandon children without regard for their survival if they feel they are slowing them down.
The ages of some of these abandoned children is shocking. In 2021, Border Patrol Agents found a three-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl from Honduras abandoned by smugglers (and left for dead) on the banks of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.
In 2022, the Border Patrol took custody of 152,000 unaccompanied children at or near the U.S.-Mexico Border. Most of the children were from Central America.
In March, 2022 more than 8,000 unaccompanied children taken into custody at the border have been turned over to adult sponsors in Texas, more than any other U.S. state.
More often than not, the children abandoned by human smugglers along the Texas Border with Mexico are a bit older - but that does not make their plight any less hazardous.
Most of the children present officers from Texas, Arizona, and Federal Agents with contact information for relatives in the U.S. - although some critics worry about the accuracy of that information.
The numbers are staggering. For example, in the 2024 Fiscal Year alone, Del Rio (Texas) Sector Border Patrol agents have encountered nearly 11,000 unaccompanied children.
Border Patrol Agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have encountered 21,000 unaccompanied children so far this fiscal year.
Children crossing the border alone into Texas is not a new trend - the photo below is of two Honduran brothers who crossed in Del Rio by themselves last year:
Is enough being done to prevent children being smuggled into the U.S. along our Southern Border?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Probably not. I hope that these children will be received back by their home nation states. They're vulnerable here and there is no competent and consistent protector for them here, unless they are adopted above board. It's better to send them home.