Migrant boy, 3, found crying and alone on US border

A three-year-old migrant boy was found in tears as he wandered alone in a Texas cornfield near the US-Mexico border, officials say.

US Border Patrol agents discovered the boy in the Rio Grande Valley near Brownsville, Texas on Tuesday morning.

His name and phone number were written on his shoes, according to officials.

A photo of a border agent carrying him was tweeted by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“We believe the boy was with a larger group that ran when they encountered agents,” the agency wrote in the tweet.

He was taken to a nearby border station, where he remains while efforts are made to find his family, officials say.

The boy is believed to have been abandoned by a group of migrants attempting to enter the US via the Rio Grande, border agent Rudy Karish told NBC News.

Startled by border agents, the migrants fled, leaving the boy on his own, he said.

He did not have any injuries and appeared to be in good health, a US Border Patrol spokesperson told CNN.

Until his relatives are located, the boy will be transferred to the care of Health and Human Services, NBC News reports.

A spokesman for US Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector told the BBC a full statement about the boy would be released in due course.

He was taken to a nearby border station, where he remains while efforts are made to find his family, officials say.

The boy is believed to have been abandoned by a group of migrants attempting to enter the US via the Rio Grande, border agent Rudy Karish told NBC News.

Startled by border agents, the migrants fled, leaving the boy on his own, he said.

He did not have any injuries and appeared to be in good health, a US Border Patrol spokesperson told CNN.

Until his relatives are located, the boy will be transferred to the care of Health and Human Services, NBC News reports.

A spokesman for US Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector told the BBC a full statement about the boy would be released in due course.

The discovery of the boy comes as US Border Patrol agents attempt to grapple with the rising number of families trying to reach the US from Central America.

On Monday, Mexico detained nearly 400 Central American migrants who were travelling towards the US border, according to officials.

The migrants, said to be part of a 3,000-strong caravan, were arrested during a raid in Chiapas state.

US President Donald Trump said the remainder “must be apprehended” and threatened to close a section of the border if they were not.

What are the latest migration figures?

In total, 207,475 people have been apprehended on the south-west US border between January and the end of March this year, official US Border Patrol figures show.

Of that total, 53,077 of them were families and 8,975 were unaccompanied children in March, the agency says.

The total number of apprehensions rose sharply between February and March, from 66,884 to 92,607, according to the latest figures.

In March, CBP said encounters of family units and unaccompanied children along the southwest border rose to numbers not seen since 2014.

“We are currently experiencing a system-wide emergency in our processing and holding facilities,” CBP deputy commissioner, Robert Perez, said in a statement.

“The humanitarian crisis created by a massive influx of family groups and unaccompanied children in recent months has forced CBP to reallocate resources away from law enforcement, trade and travel missions to process and provide care for those in our custody.”

How is Trump dealing with it?

Mr Trump has taken a hard-line on migration across the US-Mexico border since taking office in 2017.

Building a “big, beautiful” wall to stop the flow of migrants was one of his main 2016 presidential campaign pledges, blaming Mexico for “bringing drugs, bringing crime, their rapists”.

His plans reached an impasse last year after Congress refused to give Mr Trump the $5.7bn (£4.5bn) he wanted to build the wall, leading to a government shutdown.

But in February, Mr Trump managed to circumvent Congress by declaring a national emergency, allowing him to reroute funds from the military to the wall.

As president, Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened to shut down the border if Mexico does not do more to stop undocumented migrants making the crossing.

Source: bbc.com