Migrant Toddler Found near Death at Texas Border

Border Patrol agents rescued an unresponsive toddler being carried by his mother who illegally crossed the border from Mexico into South Texas. The child was airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio due to their condition.

McAllen Station Border Patrol agents came upon a large group of migrants where smugglers ferry them across the Rio Grande River on a regular basis. As agents were processing them, they came upon a Guatemalan woman carrying her unresponsive two-year-old son, according to Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials.

The agents treated the child for a “heat-related illness,” officials said. After stabilizing the child, agents called for an ambulance to transport the child to a local hospital for further medical evaluation. An examination revealed the child suffered multiple spider bites on the back of his neck. The bites caused a severe allergic reaction, officials stated.

Doctors also discovered a head injury severe enough to cause internal hemorrhaging. The doctors in the Rio Grande Valley made the decision to airlift the child to a San Antonio hospital where he could receive advanced medical treatment.

The area where the child and his mother were found has been the scene of massive illegal border crossings. During a recent 3-day period, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents apprehended more than 2,000 illegal immigrants in this area known as Rincon Village. Cartel-connected human smugglers use the area near Granjeno, Texas, to move large numbers of family units and unaccompanied minors.

“The transnational criminal organizations exploit family units and unaccompanied children populations and create diversions for agents, leaving areas along the Rio Grande vulnerable,” Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla, Jr. said in a written statement last week. “A majority of apprehensions are occurring near Granjeno, just south of Mission, in what’s become a staging area dubbed ‘Rincon Village,’ where illegal immigrants of all ages turn themselves in to agents. The area is well known and has become a gateway for human smuggling.”

Sector officials previously told Breitbart Texas that cartels exploit families and the unaccompanied children divert Border Patrol agents. While the agents are occupied with migrant processing, cartels move others seeking to avoid apprehension or drug shipments.

There are no physical barriers in the area to deter illegal border crossings.