Traffickers abandon two migrant girls at the southern border with a note to the authorities

Traffickers abandoned two child migrants at the southern border Texas this weekfleeing back to Mexico as Texas authorities came to rescue the girls, amid continued concern about the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said his troops had recovered the two girls, aged five and nine, after the smuggler had abandoned them and fled back to Mexico.

The girls, from El Salvador, carried only a note with an address and phone number, and were later referred to the US Border Patrol.

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Texas soldiers rescued two abandoned girls at the southern border. (Texas Department of Public Safety.)

The incident comes close to current concerns about unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border, with numbers rising significantly during the recent migrant crisis.

There have been several incidents of rescues of abandoned children, often with phone numbers or addresses of relatives or others written on paper or sewn into clothing. When the children arrive unaccompanied, they are finally transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and released to sponsors in the US

A National Guard soldier stands guard on the banks of the Rio Grande at Shelby Park on January 12, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The issue made headlines earlier this year when the DHS Office of Inspector General sent a report to Congress that found that over the past five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children (UC) they had failed to appear at immigration court hearings and that Immigration and customs control he could not explain the location of all those who did not appear.

“During our ongoing audit to assess ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of CUs that were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS ) of the US), we learned that ICE transferred more than 448,000 CU to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023,” the internal watchdog reported.

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“However, ICE was unable to locate all UCs who were released by HHS and failed to appear in immigration court as scheduled. ICE reported that more than 32,000 UCs did not appear for their immigration court hearings between fiscal years 2019 and 2023,” he said.

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The watchdog also found about it 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children they have not yet been marked for removal proceedings, because ICE has routinely failed to schedule immigration court dates and send notices.

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ICE’s FY 2024 report found that despite an increase of more than 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children in the US during the Biden administration, only 411 were removed in FY 2024, an increase from 212 in fiscal year 2023. By comparison, more than 4,000 were eliminated. in fiscal year 2022.