Photo: Pedro Pardo/Getty Images
A video captured by the US authorities showed the moment in which A smuggler abandoned a one-year-old Guatemalan boy on the banks of the Colorado Riveron the United States border with Mexico.
In the images shared by the Border Patrol, registered on Monday afternoon, it is observed when a human smuggler crosses the fence that separates the border, with a small child in his arms.
Then, the subject leaves the minor sitting on the fence, very close to the river bank, and flees again to the Mexican side. The little boy stands up after a few seconds and walks aimlessly, completely bewildered and abandoned.
A Border Patrol agent realized what had happened and rushed to the scene aboard a patrol car. In the video you can see when the officer gets out of the vehicle, takes the child in his arms and puts him in the back seat.
“Thanks to our agent’s quick response, the tragedy was averted,” said Raúl Ortiz, head of the Border Patrol, on Twitter.
Ortiz also shared the photo of the agent with the child in his arms in one of the Border Patrol offices.
A one-year-old Guatemalan child was abandoned along the Colorado River Monday afternoon by a smuggler who took him across the border and then left him to fend for himself along the water’s edge. Thanks to our agent’s quick response, tragedy was averted! pic.twitter.com/mY2K7t59VE
— Chief Raul Ortiz (@USBPChief) March 23, 2023
The child was identified, but due to privacy regulations the agency will not release his data, said John Mennell, a spokesman for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Service.
“The child will be placed in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement,” Mennell said.
More than 57,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived this year at the US-Mexico border.
84% of unaccompanied minors are between 13 and 17 years of age. 68% of them are male and come mainly from Mexico and Central American countries, but also from Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and Brazil, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
This week 12 people were found aboard a freight train in Uvalde County, Texas. 2 died, 4 were taken to San Antonio, and 6 were taken to local hospitals.
Three other individuals were found alive in a dump truck, a vehicle used for loading and unloading on railroads.
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