Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officers encountered a distressing scene on Thanksgiving Day when they discovered a 10-year-old boy from El Salvador crying alone near the U.S.-Mexico border. The boy, who had been abandoned by human smugglers, was left vulnerable and frightened in unfamiliar territory.
The incident occurred in Hidalgo County, Texas, where DPS Special Operations Group troopers found the child. Upon discovering him, the officers immediately offered care and comfort. The boy explained that he had been traveling with a larger group of migrants but was left behind.
Texas DPS Lieutenant Chris Olivarez shared footage of the incident on X.
“The child was crying and told troopers a smuggling guide left him behind and that he was lost,” he wrote on X. “The child only had a phone and stated his parents were in the US. The child was turned over to the US Border Patrol.”
In the video, the young boy is seen walking up to the troopers, explaining what happened.
“They left me alone,” the young boy says in Spanish. “They didn’t want to guide me.”
Olivarez reminded Americans that not all children have the opportunity to celebrate holidays or be with their families due to the chaos at the border.
“As many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with our families and friends, let’s not forget many children will not get to enjoy the holidays or see their families because they have been placed in a dire situation due to open border conditions,” he wrote.
“Many more who are trafficked across the southern border are exploited and exposed to a dangerous criminal environment during their journey to the US.”
This event highlights the ongoing challenges faced by law enforcement agencies patrolling the southern border. The Texas DPS has been actively involved in Operation Lone Star, a state-led initiative aimed at combating illegal immigration and drug trafficking along the Texas-Mexico border, per The Post Millennial.
The discovery of the abandoned child is not an isolated incident. A video of a two-year-old girl from El Salvador arriving at the border with only a note circulated across social media earlier this week, as Resist the Mainstream reported.
In a similar incident earlier this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released footage of a 10-year-old boy from Nicaragua found alone near La Gruilla, Texas, CBS News reported. Like the El Salvadoran boy, the Nicaraguan child had been abandoned by a group of migrants he was traveling with.
The Biden-Harris administration has faced criticism for its handling of the border situation. Critics argue that current policies may inadvertently encourage more families to send children on the dangerous journey to the U.S. border.
The latest Customs and Border Protection data shows that over 529,000 minor children have entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, as reported by the New York Post. Alarmingly, the administration has lost track of more than 320,000 of these children, igniting widespread outrage across the country.
Concerns are mounting that many of the missing children may have fallen victim to human trafficking.
