A 10-year-old boy was rescued by Texas State Troopers after crossing the U.S. border on Thanksgiving Day, only to be left behind by smugglers in a remote area.
The boy, from El Salvador and carrying just a cell phone, was alone and lost when he entered Maverick County, Texas.
He told the state troopers, crying, that he was trying to find his parents, who had come to the U.S. earlier and trusted coyotes to bring him to family in America, Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez said in an X post sharing the video of the child.
10-year-old Boy Found Crying And Alone At U.S. Border On Thanksgiving After Being Abandoned By Smugglers 
10-year-old Boy Found Crying And Alone At U.S. Border On Thanksgiving After Being Abandoned By Smugglers The area has become a hotspot for unaccompanied migrant children.
Just days earlier, Texas authorities found a 2-year-old girl from El Salvador who had crossed with 60 other unaccompanied children. The video of a Texas trooper interviewing the girl, who said her parents were already in the U.S., went viral and sparked outrage over the border crisis.
"As many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with our families and friends, let's not forget that many children won't get to enjoy the holidays or see their families because they are in a difficult situation due to open border conditions. Many others, who are trafficked across the southern border, are exploited and exposed to dangerous criminals on their journey to the U.S.," Olivarez said about the latest heartbreaking case.
Under the Biden administration, more than 529,000 migrant children have entered the U.S., according to federal data.
A shocking report from a federal watchdog released in August revealed that the government lost track of about 320,000 migrant children who crossed the border without their parents.
Once in the U.S., Border Patrol agents place the children in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency responsible for checking their sponsors in the U.S.
An unaccompanied two-year-old child from El Salvador explains she arrived in the US by herself and that her parents are in the US. The child had a piece of paper with a phone number and name.
This morning, @TxDPS encountered a group of 211 illegal immigrants in Maverick… pic.twitter.com/rXFoqee3Kk
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) November 24, 2024
Tara Lee Rodas, a whistleblower who worked under the HHS program, told The Post earlier this week that the federal agency only makes a phone call to the child's sponsor to confirm they're expecting the child.
"We're picking up the phone. … We're not seeing this person face to face," she said of the alleged responsible caregiver on the other end.
"We're not doing DNA testing, and we're turning small children over to someone in the US that the child gets a piece of paper and says, 'This is where I'm going.' I mean, nobody's questioning that," Rodas said.
Some of those sponsors have turned out to be gang members and sex and labor traffickers, said Rodas.
"This is such a stain on our nation," she said.
Olivarez called the trend "concerning," saying that state authorities "don't know exactly what happens to them on their journey and where they ended up afterward."
