Anger exists on both sides of the immigration debate and it’s often hard to find common ground with friends and family members who disagree with us about immigration issues. One thing that should galvanize all of us while prompting us to outrage is the abandonment of a 3-year-old boy by human smugglers and the group of adult migrants they were escorting. This past Tuesday morning, agents for U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered the young boy wandering alone in a Texas field.
The boy, who was crying when agents found him in the Rio Grande Valley near Brownsville, Texas, was identified only by a phone number and his name written on his shoes, the officials said.
The agents have taken the boy to a U.S. border station and are trying to find his parents using the number on his shoes, the officials said. So far, they have been unsuccessful and are in the process of transferring the boy to the care of Health and Human Services.
Chief Border Patrol Agent Rudy Karish believes that the boy was abandoned by a group of adults being led by smugglers after the group encountered border agents and fled, which is a despicable act of cowardice.
The urge to self-preservation runs strong in most people. However, many of us realize that there are situations in which we should suppress our own desires for the protection and service of others, specifically for the protection and service of those weaker and less capable than us. Children, for example. The abandonment of a such a young child in the Texas wilderness reveals the character (or, lack thereof) of the group of adults attempting to enter this country. If Border Patrol agents hadn’t stumbled across that little boy, he would have undoubtedly perished.
If anything, this near-tragic event reveals the need for a screening process to help ensure that those who migrate to this country have the moral character to not abandon children when faced with difficulty. I don’t care how hard they may work, we do not need adults entering this country who think it’s okay to abandon 3-year-old children.
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