A new video shows a Nicaraguan boy crying and wandering alone on a rural Texas road and asking a border agent for help. The 10-year-old was traveling with a group of migrants when he was apparently abandoned.
People reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection released footage of the incident, which happened on April 1 by a Rio Grande border patrol agent. The boy explains to the officer that he woke up and discovered that his group had left him behind. “I came looking because I didn’t know where to go, and they can also rob or kidnap me or something,” he told the officer.
In a statement to the publication, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agent “transported the child to a Border Patrol facility where he was fed and medically screened.”
The agency added, “As with all unaccompanied alien children the border patrol encounters, he will be safely transferred to the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement.” He was fed and medically screened at a Border Patrol facility before arriving at HHS, which manages the long-term care of most unaccompanied children.
The boy was found near La Grulla, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. “Scenes like these are all too common, as smugglers continue to abandon children in desolate areas, with zero regard for their well-being,” a CBP spokesperson said, per CBS News.
