In the last week, dozens of children ages 2 to 17 years old have been found alone at the United States-Mexico border, according to an official in Texas.
Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez told NewsNation that since Sunday, Nov. 24, the US border patrol has found more than 100 unaccompanied children.
“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 are coming across that border,” Olivarez said while speaking with NewsNation.
Olivarez said that agents encountered one 4-year-old girl who had a note with her first name and a phone number. NewsNation reached out to her mother, who revealed that she had already entered the US and that she left her child with criminal smugglers in Honduras and Mexico, hoping they would be reunited.
“I found a coyote, and I paid for them to bring her to me,” the woman told the outlet. “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.”
Olivarez shared that situations like this are “all too common” and that the increase in unaccompanied minors may only increase as time goes on.
“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.
When it comes to what he thinks is causing the influx of children being found alone at the border, Olivarez points to “whatever agreement” the Biden administration made with Mexico to reduce the number of border crossings.
“There is no safety mechanisms. There is no protocols in place to protect unaccompanied children,” he said.
Last month, the US Border Patrol reported that it was on pace to record fewer than 50,000 apprehensions of migrants crossing the southern border unlawfully this month. The agency averaged around 1,550 apprehensions between legal points of entry every day in November.