Agents in South Texas found a three-year-old immigrant boy wandering alone in a cornfield near the border early Tuesday, according to Customs and Border Protection.
The toddler was crying and in need of attention when agents from the Rio Grande Valley Sector discovered him near Brownsville on Tuesday morning.
The only piece of information found on the boy was a phone number and name written on the bottom of one of his shoes.
The boy’s nationality is unknown, but he is believed to have been part of a larger group that illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico and got separated from a person in the group.
Early this morning, #USBP Agents found a 3-year-old boy alone and crying in a corn field in TX. He had his name & phone numbers written on his shoes. #CBP is attempting to reach his family. We believe the boy was with a larger group that ran when they encountered Agents. pic.twitter.com/0s0zwmFxih
— CBP (@CBP) April 24, 2019
The child was taken to a Border Patrol station and will be transferred to the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied minor immigrants.
Agents have called the number on the boy’s shoe, but were not able to make contact as of Tuesday evening.
The Rio Grande Valley region has seen far more children arriving by themselves as well as families at the border since October than any of the other eight sectors. More than 15,000 unaccompanied children and 78,000 people traveling with family members have been apprehended since then, according to CBP data.
