Five young migrant children were found at the Texas-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The children were aged between 11 months to 7 years old and were of Honduran and Guatemalan descent.
Photo from Tony Gonzales/Twitter
They were found near Normandy, Texas as a farmer was making the rounds on his land.
None required medical attention amongst the scorching 100-degree temperature (approx. 37 degrees Celsius).
“It is heartbreaking to find such small children fending for themselves in the middle of nowhere,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero said in a statement. “Unfortunately this happens far too often now. If not for our community and law enforcement partners, these little girls could have faced the more than 100-degree temperatures with no help.”
Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry has said smugglers abandoned the girls near the Rio Grande.
A phone number has also been found among the girls and a family member has already been contacted.
The farmer who discovered them described spotting them early in the morning, near the riverbank: “I was making my rounds here on the farm, it was about 8:30 a.m. in the morning, just driving along and all of a sudden I see them on the bank of the river. Five little baby girls all by themselves, hungry, crying.”
He swiftly contacted Border Patrol to help secure the children. The girls were then transferred to Uvalde Station for processing, and then to the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this week.
“I don’t think they would’ve made it if I hadn’t found them because it got up to 103 [degrees] yesterday,” he said.
Photo from Carolyn Cole/L.A. Times
The U.S. has been struggling to deal with the large amount of migrants entering the country, of which most are unaccompanied children. As of Monday this week, there were an estimated 21,713 migrant children under Customs and Border Patrol custody or HH care.
