2-year-old migrant crosses border alone looking for parents in US

(NewsNation) — A 2-year-old miss from El Salvador, traveling unsocial with thing much than a portion of insubstantial bearing a telephone number, was recovered by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials, spotlighting the increasing situation of unaccompanied migrant children astatine the U.S. confederate border.

Lt. Chris Olivarez told NewsNation that the kid was portion of a larger radical of 60 unaccompanied minors encountered successful Eagle Pass ranging successful property from 2 to 17 years old. The toddler carried a azygous portion of insubstantial with a telephone fig and a name, claiming her parents were already successful the United States.

"We don't cognize who this small miss is going to extremity up with oregon who is that idiosyncratic down that telephone number," Olivarez said.

An August Department of Homeland Security report revealed that much than 32,000 unaccompanied children failed to be migration hearings betwixt 2019 and 2023, with different astir 300,000 ne'er receiving a tribunal date.

The kid was examined for signs of maltreatment and turned implicit to Border Patrol, with her eventual destination uncertain.

Olivarez speculated that accrued migration mightiness beryllium linked to imaginable governmental changes, suggesting "desperation to get much kids crossed by themselves" arsenic a caller medication approaches.

The Texas DPS reported encountering 211 immigrants successful Maverick County, including the 60 unaccompanied children and six immigrants from Mali and Angola.

"This is simply a stark illustration of the precarious travel these children make," Olivarez said successful a station connected X, highlighting the risks of quality trafficking and the vulnerability of unaccompanied minors.

The bureau claims to person rescued implicit 900 children during Operation Lone Star from imaginable abandonment and quality smuggling.

Last week, Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, released a report claiming that “failures” by President Joe Biden’s administration person led to the “exploitation and maltreatment of migrant children.”

Cassidy launched a formal investigation much than a twelvemonth and a fractional agone into the administration’s policies connected the attraction and attraction of unaccompanied children aft helium said helium noticed an alarming emergence in illegal kid labor.

NewsNation's Damita Menezes contributed to this report.