A 2-year-old child who was found in a group of migrants apprehended near the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern California two weeks ago remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as federal officials search for her parents.
The toddler was found when Border Patrol agents based out of Campo, Calif., took six people into custody approximately two miles north of the international border Nov. 27. The migrants told agents they had traveled from Central America with one of the caravan groups.
One of the group members, a 17-year-old boy, had had the 2-year-old strapped to his chest.
“According to the young male, the child had been with her mother the night before on Nov. 26, but she became tired and asked if one of the group members could carry her daughter. The 17-year-old youth, traveling alone, offered to carry the child while the mother rested,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release Tuesday.
The boy told agents his group separated from the mother’s group before crossing the border, and he carried the toddler into the U.S.
The toddler was taken to a local federal facility for children and is being held in an ICE facility while CBP tries to find the mother. It’s not clear if her group was also apprehended after illegally entering or if it went undetected.
[Also read: Trump and migrant families battle for Time’s Person of the Year honor]
