Human Smugglers Abandon 2 Children on Island in Texas Border River

children abandoned in Rio Grande by human smugglers
Photo: U.S. Border Patrol/Del Rio Sector

Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents rescued two children who had been abandoned by smugglers on a small island in the middle of the Rio Grande border between Texas and Mexico.

Shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, Eagle Pass Station Border Patrol agents working along the Rio Grande found two children stranded on an island. Human smugglers abandoned the two children, according to Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero.

Chief Skero tweeted a photograph of the two children rescued by his agents.

“The children were abandoned by smugglers, with no sign of their parents,” Skero wrote. “These merciless smugglers prey on desperation, forgoing all morals for financial gain.”

Del Rio Sector officials told Breitbart Texas the children were related and were from Honduras. The boy is reported to be 13-years-old and his sister is nine. The children were carrying contact information.

This appears to be a new tactic by Mexican cartel-connected human smugglers. Just four days ago, Breitbart Texas reported that Rio Grande Valley Sector agents in Brownsville, Texas, observed four small children walking along the Texas side of the Rio Grande.

Brownsville Station agents located the four shivering, wet children along the river after camera operators initially detected them.

The agents quickly placed the four children in a vehicle and turned up the heater. They then transported the abandoned children to the station for processing and medical screening.

Agents report the children were two sets of siblings. They identified the children as Honduran and Salvadoran nationals — ages seven, six, four, and four, officials reported.

Officials said the four children had names and U.S. phone numbers written on their clothing. Agents put the children in dry, warm clothes and turned them over to medical staff for evaluation.

One day before that, Fort Brown Station agents found another child that human smugglers forced a woman to bring across the river. The woman was not related to or even from the same country as the three-year-old girl.

The Venezuelan illegal immigrant said she had no clue about the child’s identity. “The woman added the only reason she complied with the smugglers’ instructions was she felt it was in the best interest and safety of the child,” officials stated.

Officials found a Honduran birth certificate on the child and a name and phone number on the child’s shirt.

Officials did not report what will be done with the five children.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

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