- Unaccompanied minors is a Border Patrol term for children arriving at the border without a legal guardian
- Kids are often smuggled into the country by cartels who abandon them in remote areas
A staggering 48,610 children without a legal guardian have crossed the US-Mexico border since the beginning of the fiscal year which began in October, the US Border Patrol revealed.
In that same period, 1.2 million people have crossed the US border illegally, statistics from US Customs and Border Protection show.
In the El Paso Sector of the border, 5,800 unaccompanied children have been found near the international boundary, El Paso Border Patrol Chief Anthony Good tweeted Monday.
The shocking figure was posted alongside the photo of a young boy arriving on the border near El Paso, Texas in recent days.
In the image, a Border Patrol kneels with the boy with the vast desert surrounding them.
‘Traveling alone can be a scary and dangerous experience,’ the social media post states.
A young boy is found near the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas in recent days, the US Border Patrol stated
Two Guatemalan brothers, ages 6 and 2, were found with writing on their clothes, letting US law enforcement where their family members in the US could be found in September 2022
Texas border patrol agents recovered five unaccompanied migrant children holding notes with addresses in New York and Texas.
Department of Public Safety troopers in Texas found the five young kids in Eagle Pass after they crossed the Rio Grande with a group of 60 illegal immigrants
‘The El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents are always prepared to encounter & aid this vulnerable population.’
Since the border crisis began in 2021, there have several heartbreaking cases of little ones being smuggled across the border with nothing but a piece of paper to alert US authorities where their relatives in the can be found.
Five children, ages 5 to 11, were found holding addresses in New York and Texas just last month near the Rio Grande in the Lone Star State.
One little girl’s note read ‘Schenectady, Nueva York’ and included a name.
Another migrant boy clutched a ripped up scrap of paper with a Texas ZIP code scribbled on it.
The amount of children who have arrived at the southern border is on pace to surpass the 2022 tally– when 158,865 little ones entered the country in a 12-month period, according to federal statistics.
Last year, saw the arrival of 145,474 unaccompanied minors– defined by federal immigration authorities as any minor traveling with a legal guardian.
In some cases, the child is traveling with an aunt, uncle or other relative who does not qualify as a legal guardian, but in most cases, the minors are completely alone.
So far this year, 48,610 unaccompanied minors have crossed the border this fiscal year, which ends at the end of September
Unaccompanied children end up in living facilities called Southwest Keys. The photo above was shared on the organization’s website
Unaccompanied minors who reach the US’s southern border are not deported to their home countries, which sometimes is not known, since they can arrive without any kind of identification.
They can only remain in law enforcement custody for up to 72 hours
The children are then placed into the care of the federal government with the Office of Refugee Resettlement until the child can be reunited with family in the US or sent back to their home country if there is no family in the US.
That US policy has resulted in a growing number of illegal immigrants posing as children in an effort to avoid deportation — with close to 700 juvenile imposters nabbed in El Paso, Texas in 2022, according to the feds.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement places the children in living facilities called Southwest Keys.
‘Most of the youth in our care are between the ages of 13-17, often coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,’ the Southwest Keys website states.
There are 27 Southwest Keys shelters shattered across the border, including 17 in Texas, two in California and eight in Arizona.