Newly launched video footage exhibits an unaccompanied toddler crossing into america to hitch her mother and father who’re already within the nation as considerations about unlawful immigration proceed to loom giant within the minds of People.
Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Division of Public Security shared video footage on X Sunday documenting an encounter staff of his company had with a 2-year-old lady they encountered within the border county of Maverick County. Olivarez summarized the interplay between regulation enforcement officers and the lady, who communicated in Spanish, in a caption accompanying the video.
“An unaccompanied 2-year-old child from El Salvador explains she arrived in the U.S. by herself and that her parents are in the U.S. The child had a piece of paper with a phone number and name,” he defined. “This is a stark example of the precarious journey these children make from their home country and how criminal organizations traffic these children across the southern border and further into the interior.”
Olivarez added: “Regardless of political views, it is unacceptable for any child to be exposed to dangerous criminal trafficking networks. With a record number of unaccompanied children and hundreds of thousands missing, there is no one ensuring the safety and security of these children except for the men and women who are on the frontlines daily. Despite the criticism over the years, the reality is that many children are exploited and trafficked, never to be heard from again.”
He additional lamented that the younger El Salvadoran baby was simply considered one of 60 unaccompanied kids between the ages of two and 17 that his workforce had encountered amongst this specific group of 211 unlawful immigrants in Maverick County on Sunday morning.
Issues in regards to the prevalence of unlawful immigrants within the U.S. performed a job within the 2024 presidential election as President-elect Donald Trump made border safety a key subject of his marketing campaign.
Exit polling confirmed that 53% of voters trusted Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, to deal with the difficulty of unlawful immigration higher than his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, whereas 44% mentioned the alternative. Among the many 12% of voters who cited unlawful immigration as an important subject dealing with the nation, 89% backed Trump in comparison with 9% who supported Harris.
The concentrate on unlawful immigration resonated notably properly in Texas, considered one of 4 states that share a border with Mexico. Trump additionally carried Maverick County by a margin of practically 20 share factors.
This marked a notable shift from 2020 when Democratic President Joe Biden beat Trump there by 7.5 share factors. In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton beat Trump in that nation by practically 56 share factors.
With lower than two months to go till he takes workplace, Trump has unveiled a plan he believes will assist encourage Mexico to cease the circulate of unlawful immigrants and medicines into the U.S. In an announcement posted on Reality Social Monday, Trump mirrored on the truth that “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before.”
Noting how a “Caravan coming from Mexico, comprised of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border,” Trump vowed to signal an govt order imposing a 25% tariff on all items coming into the U.S. from Mexico and Canada till these international locations take motion to repair what he described as their “absolute right and power” to safe their respective borders with the U.S.
Knowledge compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Safety present that greater than 7 million encounters have taken place between unlawful immigrants and border enforcement officers since October 2021, which marked the primary month of fiscal yr 2022, Biden’s first full yr in workplace. In that point, greater than 1.8 million kilos of medicine have been seized.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Submit. He might be reached at: [email protected]
“Well bless their hearts.”