2-Year-Old Child Found Without Parents After Crossing Border Into United States

A 2-year-old child who was traveling with the migrant caravan was found without her parents in California after crossing the border into the United States.

Customs and Border Protection said that Border Patrol agents found the girl strapped to the chest of a 17-year-old male on Nov. 27, along with five other illegal aliens.

The group was apprehended 2 miles north of the border near Campo.

The teenager carrying the little girl told agents that the child was with her mother the previous day but she became tired and asked someone to carry her, so the teen did. The group became separated before crossing into the United States and the teen couldn’t locate the mother.

The 2-year-old was taken to a local child-holding facility and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is attempting to find her mother to reunite the pair.

Jose Villalobos-Jobel, 29, was arrested in southern California near the US-Mexico border on Nov. 24, 2018. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

Predators, Gang Members Arrested

Recent arrests near the border have also included gang members and predators.

Border Patrol agents in Texas arrested 63 illegal aliens in the brush west of Laredo on Dec. 6, after a report of possible human smuggling inside a private ranch.

After a three-hour search, agents found the group and confirmed they were all illegal aliens, from the countries of Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

On Dec. 5, agents found five gang members who illegally entered the country in different locations in Texas, as well as two child predators.

One 18th Street gang member was nabbed near Fronton and two others were arrested near Artecitas. One man arrested earlier in the day near Artecitas was previously convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.

Agents found an MS-13 gang member working in Los Ebanos while agents found another 18th Street gang member near Hidalgo who also had an active warrant from California for domestic violence.

The arrests on Tuesday also included a Honduran national apprehended near Roma, whose record checks revealed he had been convicted in North Carolina for indecent liberties with a child.

A Central American migrant tries to bring down part of the border fence between Mexico and the United States, near El Chaparral border crossing, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on Nov 25, 2018. (Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images)

Claims of Credible Fear Increase

The Border Patrol said on Dec. 10 that claims of credible fear, or applications for asylum, have increased.

There were 521,090 total apprehensions in fiscal year 2018, which ended with September. Out of those, 18 percent, or nearly 93,000 aliens, claimed credible fear.

The increase continues a trend and represented a jump from 13 percent in the prior fiscal year. In that year, just 55,584 migrants claimed credible fear. In the fiscal years from 2000 to 2013, fewer than 1 percent of migrants claimed credible fear.

Credible fear is when migrants have any fear or concern about being returned to their home country or last country of residence. Agents also ask if a migrant would be harmed if they were returned.

Though 89 percent of aliens from Central America pass the initial credible fear interview at the border, just 9 percent of those are ultimately granted asylum, The Epoch Times previously reported. Often, the migrants pay a smuggler up to $7,000 for passage to the U.S. border and are coached on how to pass the credible fear screening.

“These numbers reflect a dramatic increase in initial fear claims by those encountered on the border, which is straining border security, immigration enforcement and courts, and other federal resources,” said Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan in a statement.

“As the majority of these claims will not be successful when they are adjudicated by an immigration court, we need Congress to act to address these vulnerabilities in our immigration system, which continue to negatively impact border security efforts.”

From NTD News