ROMA, Texas
Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station (RGC) agents encounter an unaccompanied two-year-old boy near the Rio Grande, officials stated Thursday.
RGC agents working near Roma encountered a two-year-old Noncitizen Unaccompanied Child on April 19, 2022.
The boy, a Honduran national, who had lost his shoe in the mud while crossing, was traveling within a group of 38 individuals.
Agents questioned the group to obtain any information on the boy, however no one claimed to know the child. Agents discovered a birth certificate on the boy with the father’s information handwritten on the back.
The child was medically screened by a Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technician, who determined the child was in good health. The child was transported to the station for further investigation.
RGV agents have encountered over 38,000 Unaccompanied Children in the first six months of fiscal year 2022.
This year’s encounters are outpacing last year’s encounters for the same reporting period. Unaccompanied Child encounters bring additional challenges for agents in the field and processing centers.
Many of the unaccompanied children encountered by Border Patrol are very young and unable to provide names or phone numbers of family members.
To locate an Unaccompanied Child’s next of kin, agents must rely on information written on articles of clothing or handwritten notes found among their property.