The image of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on the Mediterranean coast in 2015 sparked an international outcry for world leaders to do more to stop the senseless deaths of refugees.
The image of a migrant father and toddler washed up on the side of the Rio Grande River between the United States and Mexico amid the 2019 humanitarian border crisis became a symbol of the risks many have taken to get to the U.S. from Central America.
The U.S. now faces a new moment of reckoning as, every week, new images and videos released by U.S. border authorities show the extreme risks that children are put through attempting to cross the border from Mexico. The images illustrate the severity of the situation that President Joe Biden has said is the result of “horrible” circumstances and that his Republican critics say is a crisis invited by his border policies.
Many have met the same fate — dying after traveling for weeks by foot, bus, and train in hopes of escaping poverty and violence. The coronavirus pandemic has made people more desperate to escape, and Republicans insist that Biden’s friendlier posture toward illegal immigration is the main factor leading so many to make the journey to the U.S.
9-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT MEXICAN BOY DIES AFTER ATTEMPTING TO CROSS BORDER RIVER
On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents in California rescued a set of siblings, ages five and six, after human smugglers got them across the border then abandoned them in a remote area. Agents found the phone number for their mother written on the children’s arms.
On April 2, surveillance cameras monitored by the Border Patrol spotted two smugglers climbing a ladder that was placed against a 14-foot-high fence near El Paso, Texas, and lifting over two young children, then dropping them into the U.S. The incident took place miles from a residential neighborhood.
Agents responded to the scene and found a 3-year-old and 5-year-old sisters from Ecuador. The girls were taken to a local hospital to be examined and were found to be without injury.
Smugglers, under cover of night, scaled a 14 ft. border barrier and cruelly dropped 2 young children in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The girls, ages 3 & 5, were left miles from the nearest residence. Thank you STN Agents for rescuing these children! @CBP @CBPWestTexas pic.twitter.com/U91y2g8Lk1
— Gloria I. Chavez (@USBPChiefEPT) March 31, 2021
On March 30, Texas Rangers on the border rescued a 6-month-old baby after the infant was tossed by a smuggler into the river from a boat as it was transporting migrants from the Mexican side to the U.S. side.
In late March, a 9-year-old Mexican boy died after attempting to get across the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass, Texas. Border Patrol agents discovered the boy, along with a Guatemalan woman and her 3-year-old child, stranded on a tiny island on the Mexican side of the river last Saturday. All three people were found unresponsive, and agents began administering first aid while taking them to shore. The mother and her 3-year-old regained consciousness, but the boy did not.
The incident was the first known loss of life of a child at the border amid an influx of thousands of unaccompanied children and families attempting to enter the U.S. The numbers are rising more with every week as the Biden administration struggles to get control of the international boundary.
Two people in Border Patrol custody have died since the start of the calendar year, according to federal data.
Ten in-custody deaths were reported by the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2019, when 851,000 people were taken into custody for illegally coming across the border from Mexico.
Between 1998 and 2019, Border Patrol agents on the southern border recovered approximately 7,800 bodies. Agents rescue several thousand people in the desert, mountains, and water every year. Border Patrol data since 1998 shows a shift in the demographics of people illegally crossing the border. Mostly adults were arrested in the 2000s and early 2010s, but now greater percentages of families and children are encountered.
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Across the nine regions that Border Patrol divides the U.S.-Mexico border into, the Laredo and Rio Grande Valley sections of southeastern Texas were the most deadly for migrants.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
