EAGLE PASS, Texas — Police discovered an unidentified 4-year-old migrant child wandering the downtown streets Monday. An officer who first spotted the child says he was only able to provide his age by lifting four fingers when questioned. The child described to the officer how he was left alone in a commonly used local stash house.
According to a police report reviewed by Breitbart Texas, the boy was discovered wandering a street several blocks from the Rio Grande wearing a gray and maroon hoodie. Between sobs, he could only provide a first name, Eric. The boy told officers he was from Mexico and was waiting for his mother to arrive.
When officers asked the boy where he was coming from, the boy pointed to a boarded-up home on Jefferson Street. Officers searched the house known to officers as a stash spot. There were no people inside the home. The boy, visibly shaken, was able to tell officers he was brought across the Rio Grande by an unknown man. The boy said he was left alone at the home and later managed to climb from a window to escape.
The boy was not in possession of any identity documents or other information needed to locate family, according to the report. Ultimately, the boy was turned over to Border Patrol for processing and transfer to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
According to HHS, Eric was one of 243 unaccompanied minor children apprehended along the border on Monday. The child will be taken to an HHS facility where the agency will work to identify him and locate sponsors in the United States. At present, the department is housing 7,743 unaccompanied children in the process of releases to domestic sponsors.
In a revolving door-like system, nearly 200 unaccompanied migrant children were released from the agency to sponsors on Monday. In all, more than 320,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been encountered along the southwest border since President Joe Biden assumed office. In the previous year, less than 35,000 were encountered by the Border Patrol.
According to a source within CBP, in many cases, parents send their migrant children into the United States knowing they will be released to relatives. The source told Breitbart Texas parents will cross the border at a later date and claim the migrant child, hoping to gain release and family reunification.
The unaccompanied migrant children have been precariously placed in dangerous situations by human smugglers with seemingly little regard for their safety. As reported by Breitbart Texas, one smuggler led authorities on a high speed vehicle chase at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour with a migrant child locked in the trunk. Luckily, the child was unharmed.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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