McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Federal officials on Thursday were still trying to locate the family of a 2-month-old infant that Border Patrol agents found “abandoned” on the border in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
RGV Sector Chief Patrol Aent Gloria Chavez on Tuesday tweeted what she called “heartbreaking news” about Border Patrol agents finding a “2-month-old child left abandoned at the border!”
“This is a chilling reminder of how children are being exploited by human smugglers & criminal organizations every day,” Chavez tweeted on X, the platform formerly Twitter.
“The child was medically evaluated and efforts are ongoing to identify the child and relatives,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials said in a statement ]to Border Report on Thursday.
The infant was discovered Tuesday after agents encountered a group of migrants near the border town of La Grulla. A woman in the group told agents that “she had encountered the abandoned infant in a park with a backpack containing formula and diapers,” CBP officials said.
La Grulla is on the eastern edge of rural Starr County and has a population under 2,000. It is a popular location for transnational criminal organizations to cross drugs into the United States from Mexico. It is where the State of Texas has built a 1.7-mile-long state-funded border wall to stop illegal immigration.
The State of Texas has built a 1-mile segment of border wall in La Grulla, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report File Photo)
The whereabouts of the child now are unknown. Typically, unaccompanied children who are encountered on the Southwest border, once processed, are quickly put in the custody and care of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and not housed under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees U.S. Border Patrol and CBP.
Specific information on minors in HHS care is not available to the media or public.
But the Biden administration puts out a daily report of unaccompanied children. Wednesday’s report said on Tuesday — the day the infant was found — there were 430 unaccompanied children apprehended and then placed into CBP custody.
(DHS and HHS Graphic)
On Tuesday, 347 children were transferred out of CBP custody and there were 10,978 children in HHS custody, according to HHS data. An additional 332 children were discharged from HHS on Tuesday.
Federal data does not include Mexican children who are repatriated back south of the border, and not housed by CBP or HHS.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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