Border Patrol agent discovers five-week-old baby wrapped in a camouflage bundle while questioning migrants near the Mexico-Arizona border
- A five-week-old baby from Guatemala was almost run over by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on an ATV near the Mexico-Arizona border February 16
- The child was with his 38-year-old mother and was abandoned in the desert shortly before she and other migrants were stopped by the agents
- One of the officers was canvassing the area for other migrants when he nearly ran over the baby, who was covered up in camouflage
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the mother and the child were found to be in good health, but were expelled to Mexico
A U.S. Border Patrol agent who encountered a group of undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert nearly crushed a five-week-old Guatemalan boy while riding an ATV in search of others traveling with the group.
Tucson Sector agent Mike Jones and the rest of the unit from the Ajo Station approached the group after they illegally crossed over from Mexico on February 16, according to Fox News.
Jones told the network that they were interrogating the migrants around 7pm local time as part of normal protocol and sensed that they were withholding information. So, an agent stepped away to canvass the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
‘The questions we ask are, is there anyone else in the group,’ Jones said. ‘Where is everyone else in the group? No one gave any answers.’
A five-week-old boy from Guatemala was nearly run over by a U.S. Border Patrol agent February 16 while searching for migrants who had crossed from Mexico to Arizona. The individuals were stopped and questioned but refused to say if there were any other people traveling with them. An agent was searching the area and stopped short of driving over a camouflaged bundle before he noticed the infant.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Mike Jones, who is assigned to the Tucson Sector’s Ajo Station, holds the five-week-old migrant boy from Guatemala after he was left by his mother moments after crossing over from Mexico on February 16
Jones said at that point, one of the agents began following the migrants’ footprints on an ATV, swerving away from a bundle just in time. He inspected it and discovered an infant wrapped in a camouflage blanket.
Jones walked back over to the group with the infant. Eventually, a 38-year-old woman from Guatemala stepped forward, saying she was the mother.
‘I actually had to ask two more times in a more stern way, more stern manner until one woman decided to very hesitantly put up her hand and say that the baby belonged to her,’ Jones recalled.
The mother and the baby were processed and returned to Mexico via Lukeville, Arizona, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement.
U.S. Border Patrol agent discovered a five-week-old migrant boy from Guatemala wrapped in camouflage after he was left behind by his 38-year-old mother February 16
A U.S. Border Patrol agent tends to the five-week-old boy from Guatemala who was nearly run over by an officer aboard an ATV searching for additional migrants after they encountered a group that has crossed from Mexico on February 16
A policy passed during former Republican president Donald Trump’s administration in March 2020, Title 42 permits CBP to expel migrants under a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public health order that deems them a health risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Joe Biden’s administration has continued enforcing the law, but now ensures that unaccompanied children are not subjected to it.
Southwestern border data released by CBP last Friday showed 78,486 were expelled to Mexico in January.
Under Trump, starting in March 2020, nearly 400,000 migrants were denied asylum and refuge at the border, and returned to Mexico. The Biden administration has expelled over 1.2 million since he took office.
Overall encounters with migrants stopped along the southern border for unlawful entry declined by 14% in January, when 153,941 interdictions were reported by Border Patrol agents in comparison with 179,219 in December 2021.
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