(NewsNation) — Texas State Troopers rescued a 10-year-old boy after he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Thanksgiving Day. The boy, from El Salvador, was ditched by smugglers and left crying in a remote area, unaware if he was in the U.S. or Mexico.
The boy said his mother was already in the U.S. and was turned over to Customs and Border Patrol. The only thing the boy had on him was a phone, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“As many of us are celebrating Thanksgiving with our families & friends. Let’s not forget many children will not get to enjoy the holidays or see their families because they have been placed in a dire situation due to open border conditions, and many more who are trafficked across the southern border are exploited and exposed to a dangerous criminal environment during their journey to the US,” Texas DPS spokesperson Chris Olivarez, said on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier this week, Texas DPS troopers encountered a 4-year-old girl who was also smuggled across the border in Maverick County. She too was alone without her parents. She was carrying only a scrap of paper with a phone number and the name “Mama Patty.”
NewsNation’s Jorge Ventura was able to make contact with a woman in South Carolina who claimed to be the girl’s mother. She said she paid a smuggler $4,500 in Honduras to bring her daughter across the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I found a coyote and I paid for them to bring her to me,” she said. “She came alone. It was just the coyote. The last time I talked to my daughter was Saturday, and I haven’t heard anything since.”
It’s still unclear when the little girl could be released, or if she will be released to her mother in South Carolina.
