U.S. border officials seized the moment two children were thrown over a wall on the border with Mexico on Tuesday night (30).
The case occurred in the Santa Teresa area of New Mexico. The images, captured by security cameras, show two little girls being thrown from a height of about four meters. After falling to the ground, two drug traffickers fled the area and left them alone.
The girls are sisters and Ecuadorians. One is three years old, the other five. They were rescued and taken to medical treatment and are doing well. Then they were taken to immigrant accommodation.
“I am shocked at the way these smugglers threw innocent children through a 4.2 meter high barrier. Without the surveillance of the agents, these two sisters would have been exposed for hours to the harsh conditions of the desert ”. said Gloria Chavez, head of the border patrol in the El Paso sector.
The United States faces the largest increase in migrants in the past 20 years. Worsening economic conditions caused by the pandemic and natural disasters have prompted more people in Latin America to try to immigrate. The number of captures at the border has increased since April 2020.
US authorities estimate that as many as 184,000 unaccompanied migrant children will reach the border with Mexico this year. The situation is a challenge for US President Joe Biden, who is struggling to accommodate a growing number of minors, mainly from Central America.
If the numbers are confirmed, it will be the largest flow on record since 2010, when the historic series begins. So far, the year with the most apprehensions of unaccompanied minors was 2019, still under the administration of Donald Trump, when 76,000 children and adolescents arrived at the border alone.
March is also expected to be the month with the highest number of unaccompanied minors, with 15,000 crossing the border into Mexico, according to CBP – official figures are expected to be released in early April. Thus, the period would demystify May 2019, when 11,500 children were apprehended.
There is capacity in shelters to which children must be sent within 72 hours of seizure. Until Monday (29), there were 12 thousand in police custody.
To keep up with demand, the Biden government launched an effort in late March to create an additional 16,000 vacancies, according to US broadcaster CBS. On another note, the US Department of Homeland Security has determined that an agency normally tasked with responding to floods and hurricanes will help deal with a growing number of migrant children arriving at the border with Mexico.