Overwhelmed West Texas Border Sector Faces Spike in Unaccompanied Migrant Children

Del Rio Sector Border Patrol officials report an increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children being trafficked across the Texas-Mexico border. The sector is already overwhelmed with record-level large migrant group crossings.

Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens tweeted a photo of a large migrant group crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico. In the photo, migrant children are seen crossing the river where dozens of people have drowned in recent weeks.

The chief reported his agents took nearly 70 unaccompanied alien children (UAC) into custody over the past weekend. This included many tender-age children.

“With high water levels & temperatures in the triple digits, crossing illegally is extremely dangerous, especially for children,” Chief Owens stated.

A report from the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) shows nearly 400 such migrant children were taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on June 13. This brought the number of UACs in CBP custody to 643.

As of that date, HHS officials had more than 10,000 UACs in custody, the report stated. Officials stated these numbers do not include children from Mexico as most of those are returned to that nation after processing.

In May, Border Patrol agents took just under 12,000 UACs into custody. Del Rio Sector agents accounted for 1,034 of those apprehended in April. This is an increase of 8.7 percent over the previous year.

CBP officials have not yet released the Southwest Land Border Encounters Report for May. It is expected, however, to show an increase in total apprehensions for May.