Smuggler abandons seven-year-old at border
Border Patrol surveillance cameras capture coyote with young girl atop border wall
CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents recently recovered a young girl from the hands of a human smuggler along the U.S./Mexico border.
Border Patrol says surveillance cameras captured a man climbing a rope ladder to the top of the 30-foot wall near the Calexico Port of Entry. They say camera operators saw a child clinging to the man's back.
A statement on the child's abandonment from Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino:
Agents cautiously made their way to the scene, fearing the coyote would drop the child. They say, from that height, a child could be seriously injured, or even killed. Agents say they waited until the man lowered the child to the ground to move in.
They arrived to find a seven-year-old girl from El Salvador. The smuggler escaped back into Mexico.
“No one, let alone a child of any age, should be exposed to the multitude of dangers when crossing
illegally into this country” said Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino. “Smugglers will always view
children as a commodity to gain a profit, disregarding the safety and well-being of any individual
except their own.”
Agents conducted a welfare check on the child, then took her to Border Patrol's El Centro Center for medical evaluation and processing.
