(NewsNation) — Agents have encountered 100 unaccompanied children at the southern border since Sunday, including one child carrying a scrap of paper with a name and telephone.
Originally reported as a two-year-old girl, the child’s mother says she is actually four. The girl’s story touched millions after it was shared by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The unnamed girl had a note with her when she encountered agents, with a phone number and first name.
NewsNation was able to contact a woman who says she is her mother. She is already in the U.S. and said she left her child in the hands of criminal smugglers in Honduras and Mexico in hopes of being reunited.
The girl is currently in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol officials, who notified the mother that her daughter had been found alone at the border.
The woman, whose first name was Patty, according to the paper, was emotional when asked about her daughter.
“I found a coyote and I paid for them to bring her to me,” the woman said. “She came alone. It was just the coyote. The last time I talked to my daughter was Saturday, and I haven’t heard anything since they told me the coyote had already handed her over to another coyote, but I don’t know anything else about her.”
The woman said she paid coyotes who normally charge $4,500 to get someone into the U.S.
Patty said she did not know the smugglers she paid to bring her child to the U.S. and said they stopped answering her calls as her daughter got closer to the border.
“I had one of their numbers, but they’re not answering me,” Patty said. “They told me they were done with their job delivering my daughter to immigration.”
Patty said she was happy to hear the news that her daughter is now in the U.S. and is waiting for federal officials to release her daughter to her in South Carolina.
While the girl’s story attracted attention, scenes of young children traveling alone are becoming the new normal along the border.
Texas Trooper Sgt. Cardova was the first to encounter the girl. He told NewsNation that, as a father, it immediately reminded him of his own kids.
He said he didn’t understand how a parent could place their own daughter in the hands of smugglers and felt it was important to share with Americans so they could grasp the reality of what happens along the border.
Patty said she had previously been deported, along with her daughter, after making the trip to the U.S. from Honduras. She then came back alone with a smuggler and saved enough money while in the U.S. to pay smugglers to bring her daughter to the country.
It remains unclear when the girl will be released to her mother.
