Texas Department of Public Safety officials identified five unaccompanied minors, ages 5 to 11, traveling with a group of about 60 migrants who unlawfully entered the United States on Wednesday.
Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), posted on X that the juveniles were detained in Eagle Pass after crossing the Rio Grande. Each of the minors carried notes with addresses in New York and Texas. The children were believed to have come from Venezuela and Guatemala.
Encounters with unaccompanied minors dropped in January after a record-high peak of encounters with unlawful migrants in December 2023, according to the latest numbers provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agency reported that encounters with unaccompanied minors fell 37% in January. It also noted that traditional migration patterns typically fall during that month.
CBP reported 176,205 total encounters at the southern border in January, a significant decrease of 42% from December.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report detailing updates to the federal process of handling unaccompanied minors apprehended while unlawfully entering the United States. The report analyzed data from 2021, finding several areas in which proper vetting of sponsors was not carried out by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the agency responsible for handling unaccompanied minors. The ORR has since purportedly updated its policies to ensure proper vetting.
The report also details how minors are handled to ensure their safety. In the report, HHS notes that “the age of these children, their separation from family, and the dangerous journey to the United States makes these children especially vulnerable to exploitation.”
The recent encounter with the unlawful minors came just before former President Donald Trump made an appearance in Eagle Pass on February 29, per reporting by The Dallas Express. Trump has regularly criticized the Biden administration for failing to secure the southern border, leading to rampant unlawful migration that overwhelms the capabilities of CBP and swamps towns along the border.
Biden also appeared in Texas the same day, though he opted to speak in Brownsville, which has not seen nearly as many unlawful migrant crossings as the Eagle Pass area.
In a post on X shared by a correspondent for Fox News, the National Border Patrol Union released internal data that indicates Brownville had seen just 462 apprehensions thus far in February. Eagle Pass has seen more than 8,000 encounters during the same time.
