One immigration narrative that truly pulls at the heartstrings is the ongoing stories of young children who are illegally sent across the border between Mexico and Texas. These children often have very little information with them, apart from their name and a US address, which they are instructed to provide to Texas State and US Federal authorities when they encounter a law enforcement officer north of the Rio Grande.
For months now, situations like this have been unfolding along the Rio Grande in Texas.
The human smugglers operating along the border with Mexico did not take a break for the holidays.
During an interview on NewsNation, DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez revealed that over 100 children, primarily in Texas, crossed the US Southern Border from Mexico without their parents during Thanksgiving week.
Sixty children were among a group of 211 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande into Texas in Maverick County on Sunday, November 24, 2024. The children’s ages ranged from two to seventeen years old.
On Friday, November 29, 2024, a surveillance camera in Val Verde County, Texas captured another incident of a child crossing the border without any family members.
The camera recorded the moment when the smuggler raced towards the Rio Grande in Mexico, carrying a child, and unlawfully crossed the border into Texas. Texas State Troopers apprehended the human smuggler during a traffic stop. They also rescued the child and detained a Mexican woman who was traveling with them. The woman claimed to be the child’s mother and revealed that she had paid $8,000 to have her daughter smuggled into the United States.
The U.S. Border Patrol took custody of the mother and child, while the Texas DPS Officers apprehended the smuggler who now faces state charges.
On Thanksgiving Day in Maverick County, Texas, a ten-year-old Salvadoran boy was rescued by Texas DPS Officers. The boy was found crying and alone in a remote area, after being abandoned by human smugglers who left him for dead. This rescue came just one day before another child and her mother were apprehended, in a similar situation, by the authorities.
DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez quickly shared the child’s distressing situation with his officers, a crucial encounter that potentially saved the boy’s life.
“As many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with our families & 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, and many more who are trafficked across the southern border are exploited and exposed to a dangerous criminal environment during their journey to the US. “ –Lt. Chris Olivarez, Texas Department of Public Safety (Thanksgiving Day, 2024)
According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the majority of unaccompanied children (97,801) have settled with sponsors in Texas. California follows with 80,404 children, Florida with 71,899 children, and New York State with 57,980 children.
According to the MPI, Harris County (Houston) is the settlement location for most of these children, with a total of 44,054. Los Angeles follows closely behind with 32,778, while Dallas has 17,059, Miami-Dade has 15,125, and Palm Beach has 13,245.
During a span of one week in February, officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) came across six young children at the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. These encounters took place over two consecutive days.
Four young children arrived alone at the Texas border from Guatemala on Thursday morning, marking their first encounter.
The following day, DPS Officers made a similar discovery at the same location. They found two unaccompanied children from Honduras who had arrived in the U.S. on their own.
The magnitude of the problem along the border becomes evident when we examine a report by the U.S. Government from 2024.
On Valentine’s Day in 2024, the Border Patrol and Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that they had over 8,800 children under their care.
In Texas alone, more than 16,000 children who arrived at the border unaccompanied were released to adult sponsors by the Health and Human Services last year.
According to reports from HHS for the past year, a total of 113,495 children who arrived alone at the U.S. borders were released to adult sponsors nationwide.
According to the HHS, the majority of these children (76%) were older than 14 years old, with 61% being boys. In 2023, the countries they originated from were predominantly Guatemala (42%), followed by Honduras (28%), El Salvador (9%), Mexico (8%), and other countries (13%).
In October, the Biden Administration made the decision to reopen a former work camp near Carrizo Springs in order to address the growing number of children arriving alone at the Texas border.
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