More than 100 unaccompanied children have been discovered at the southern border since November 24, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), including a 4-year-old girl.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border has led to the discovery of scores of unaccompanied children, illustrating the horrific impact on vulnerable migrants.
On December 1, Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the DPS-South Texas, told NewsNation Prime, “I want the American people to see the impacts of this current border situation that we’ve been in for the last three-plus years and how it impacts unaccompanied children [that] are coming across that border.”
Olivarez stated that the children they encountered ranged in age from four to seventeen.
Authorities discovered a 10-year-old youngster who had crossed the border on Thanksgiving Day.
In response to the report, Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA, told Newsweek, “Because of our broken border policies, many parents make the impossible decision to send their children to the United States for safety because they know they will face removal if they enter as a family unit.
“It is because of broken border and immigration policies that separate families, make it nearly impossible for families to reunite in the U.S., and block families from exercising their human right to seek safety together.”
On November 24, officials discovered a 4-year-old migrant child who had traveled alone from El Salvador to the United States.
The girl, carrying only a piece of paper with her phone number and name, informed a DPS trooper that her parents were already in the country.
The youngster initially claimed she was two years old; however, the girl’s mother informed NewsNation that she was four.
The mother of a four-year-old girl who came alone from El Salvador to the United States told New Nation that she paid a smuggler.
The girl’s mother, Patty, is currently in the United States and has revealed that she left her child with illegal smugglers in the hopes of reuniting with them.
“I found a coyote [smuggler], and I paid for them to bring her to me,” Patty told NewsNation.
“She came alone. It was just the coyote. The last time I talked to my daughter was Saturday, and I haven’t heard anything since they told me the coyote had already handed her over to another coyote, but I don’t know anything else about her.”
According to NewsNation, the mother stated that her daughter is still in US immigration custody, and it is unclear when or if she will be released to her in South Carolina.
According to Olivarez, finding unaccompanied youngsters is becoming “more common” among Texas troopers.
“It really shows the inner workings of how these criminals are operating, also how some of these family members, if they are family members in fact, how they even allow their child to make this long, precarious journey to United States at the hands of criminals,” he added.
“There is no protocols in place to protect unaccompanied children,” he said.
The state’s ongoing Operation Lone Star has rescued over 900 children from abandonment and human trafficking, according to the DPS.
In 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott initiated Operation Lone Star, an $11 billion initiative that combines the efforts of the DPS and the Texas National Guard to combat people and narcotics smuggling into the state.
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