Heartbreaking: Border Patrol agents find 3-year-old alone with a phone number written on his shoes

Brett T. | 7:21 PM on April 23, 2019

Democrats have already demonized ICE to the point where they want the agency abolished, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the Border Patrol isn’t their next target. The Border Patrol doesn’t get enough credit for trying to maintain some sense of order when migrants are coming in caravans by the thousands, but hopefully, this story will get people thinking about the way migrant children are used and abused.

NEW: US Border Patrol agents have found a 3-year-old migrant boy alone and crying at the border between Texas and Mexico, according to CBP officials; the boy has a phone number and his name written on his shoes. https://t.co/dGOILO4Jd9

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 23, 2019

Agents have taken the boy to a US border station and are attempting to find his parents using the number on his shoes, officials say, but so far, they have been unsuccessful, and are in the process of transferring the boy to HHS care.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 23, 2019

.@NBCNews is publishing the pictures of the toddler, which were provided by CBP, in the interest of helping reunite the family; the chief Border Patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley says he believes the boy was left by smugglers while with a larger group. https://t.co/LHZZo9HElg

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 23, 2019

“Left by smugglers while with a larger group.” It’s almost as if the human traffickers are the bad guys, and not the Border Patrol or the Trump administration.

NBC News reports:

Rudy Karish, the chief Border Patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley, said he believes the boy was left by smugglers. Karish said he believes the boy was with a larger group. When the group was encountered by agents, the adults ran away and left the boy alone.

The boy watched movies at the border station and appears to be in good spirits, Karish said.

The incident marks a flashpoint in the rising number of families and children crossing the border in recent months. In March, a total of 8,975 children traveling without their parents, but most often in groups, were apprehended at the southern border. The number of families crossing has also climbed, with 53,077 parents and children crossing the border together last month.