The video shows suspected traffickers throwing 2 children over a 14-meter border fence entering the U.S.
A Border Patrol lawyer using camera technology on Tuesday evening saw a trafficker dropping two girls – 3- and 5-year-old sisters from Ecuador – from the top of the center, west of Mt. Cristo Rey, officials said. After the two children fell to the ground, videos showing a trafficker and another fled leaving the girls on the north side of the international border.
Two children, aged 3 and 5, were left abandoned by traffickers after they brutally dragged young girls over a border fence, CBP reported.
U.S. CULTURE U.S. AND THE PROTECTION OF CRISIS
A Border Patrol lawyer warned agents, who found the girls in a remote area and offered them help. The two children were on high alert when agents contacted them, according to CBP. They were taken to a local hospital for safety reasons and tests.
The children have been medically cleansed and kept in custody, pending the appointment of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for the long-term care of many unaccompanied minors.
Gloria I. Chavez, chief executive of Border Patrol in El Paso, said in a statement that she was “surprised” by the way in which traffickers “brutally dump innocent children” on the issue.
“If it were not for the surveillance of our agents using mobile technology, these two thousand-year-old tender brothers would have been dealing with harsh desert conditions for hours,” Chavez said. “We are currently working with our legal partners in Mexico and we are trying to find these traffickers who are cruel people so that we can fully hold them accountable.”
This video comes at a time when the border problem is getting worse. Last month, nearly 9,500 unaccompanied minors arrived at the U.S. border. And Mexico, which is the highest record of any February in history. U.S. border officials are in the process of taking more than 16,000 unaccompanied minors into custody – which is the highest monthly month.
Earlier this week, journalists visited a detention center in Donna, Texas, which was supposed to house only more than 250 immigrants during the epidemic. The tent housed more than 4,100 immigrants, including 3,200 unaccompanied minors, said a border official.
While HHS has been searching for adequate beds for children arriving at the southern border, the department is in the process of opening nine emergency housing for migrant children, restoring meeting places, oil labor camps and military facilities with the aim of adding more than 16,000 beds by the end of April.
Additional reports by Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Mireya Villareal and Nicole Sganga.