Unaccompanied toddler abandoned at border in Rio Grande Valley, Texas

ROMA, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – Border patrol agents found a 2-year-old boy who had lost his shoe at 1:30 in the morning near the Rio Grande.

It was April 19 when the child, a Honduran national, was traveling within a group of 38 individuals. Agents questioned the group to obtain any information on the boy, however no one claimed to know the child. 

But agents did discover a birth certificate on the child with his father's information handwritten on the back.  

The boy was medically screened by a Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technician, who determined the child was in good health. He was then transported to the station for further investigation.

According to U.S. Customs & Border Protection, agents have encountered more than 38,000 noncitizen unaccompanied children in the first six months of fiscal year 2022. 

This year's encounters are outpacing last year's encounters for the same reporting period, according to the agency. These encounters bring additional challenges for agents in the field and processing centers. Many of the unaccompanied children encountered by Border Patrol are very young and unable to provide names or phone numbers of family members. 

Thus, to find their next of kin, agents must rely on information written on articles of clothing or handwritten notes found among their property.