Little girl, 5, found travelling alone to find mum who had died 3 days earlier
A five-year-old girl was heartbreakingly found travelling alone at the US border, heading to visit her mother with no idea she had died three days before.
The unaccompanied girl, who is from Honduras but has not been identified, crossed the border from Mexico into the US and was found at Eagle Pass, Texas. She told authorities she was looking for her mum.
She was reportedly carrying a plastic bag with her birth certificate in it and an address in the US where she was presumably headed. In a heartbreaking twist, authorities found out that her mum had died three days ago.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Thursday the girl had been found by three women six days earlier in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across from Eagle Pass, and they helped her cross the border.
According to a report, the girl told troopers that her father was in Honduras and that she was travelling to reunite with her mother in the US. She also reportedly said that she was abused in her home country.
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A five-year-old girl was found travelling alone near the US border with Mexico (Texas Department of Public Safety)
She had a plastic bag with her birth certificate in it (Texas Department of Public Safety)Meanwhile, the Biden administration's immigration agenda has been targeted by advocates claiming that an online appointment system to seek asylum at the US border with Mexico is out of reach for many migrants.
A lawsuit said the administration, often working with Mexican authorities, has physically blocked migrants from claiming asylum at land crossings with Mexico unless they have an appointment through the CBP One app. It says the app is “impossible” for those with inferior internet access, language difficulties or lack of technical know-how. Appointments are capped at 1,450 a day.
"CBP One essentially creates an electronic waitlist that restricts access to the U.S. asylum process to a limited number of privileged migrants," according to the lawsuit by advocacy groups Al Otro Lado and the Haitian Bridge Alliance and would-be asylum-seekers from Mexico, Haiti, Nicaragua and Russia, who say they couldn't get appointments while waiting in Mexico.
More than 38,000 people were processed for entry using CBP One in June and more than 170,000 got appointments during the first six months of the year, US Customs and Border Protection said last week.
The girl reportedly wanted to reach her mother but she died three days ago (Texas Department of Public Safety)CBP said late Thursday that use of the app has increased processing at land crossings to “historic levels,” significantly expanding access to asylum and humanitarian protections. At the same time, the agency said it continues to serve people “who walk up to a port of entry without an appointment.”
The lawsuit is the latest legal threat to the Biden administration's carrot-and-stick approach to the border that combines new avenues for legal entry, like CBP One, and shuts down routes to asylum for those who enter the country without government permission.
Officials say the approach is working, noting a sharp drop in illegal crossings since a rule took effect on May 11 that allows authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the border without applying on CBP One or seeking protection in another country they passed through. In June, authorities stopped migrants nearly 145,000 times, the lowest level since February 2021 and down 43% from December's peak.
But the lawsuits complicate President Joe Biden's efforts to introduce new policies. “Litigation is, to a certain extent, dictating immigration policy along the border, also in the interior,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said.
Meanwhile, the government is appealing a federal judge's decision to block the new asylum rule. US District Judge Jon Tigar delayed his ruling from taking effect for two weeks. It may fall to an appeals court to decide whether to keep the rule in place during what may be a lengthy challenge. Some legal observers don't expect a final resolution until 2025, probably in the Supreme Court.
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