Hurt, Kidnapped and Repatriated: Children of the Border

She walked several days with his small body. Finally, she left him at the foot of a tree to look for help.

She was found by the border patrol but “Lupe” didn’t immediately tell them about her son because she was afraid they would accuse her of killing him. She waited until she arrived at the detention center. Authorities searched for her son until they found him. She was accused of his death and on the verge of going to trial, but the Mexican Consulate in Tucson interceded, according to Juan Manuel Calderón, a Consulate official.

In other cases, when a young child is with a parent traveling the perilous border routes and they are seen by the border patrol, someone in the group grabs the child and flees, separating him/her from the parents or family members, according to the Consulate official. He did not clarify if this was the type of routine abduction that often takes place among human smugglers commonly called coyotes.

If agents find a minor the Mexican Consulate is notified. Then, if the child cannot give information due to being too young or speaking an indigenous language, they search the child’s belongings for a phone number or an address, the country’s officials said.

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