Shocking video out of Texas shows a rescue operation conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents last week on the Rio Grande river.
In the video, obtained by CNN and reportedly recorded last week, Border Patrol agents can be seen rescuing two children clinging to an island on the river after they attempted to cross but became trapped by the quick-moving currents.
The two children, whose names CBP did not release, were reportedly of Honduran descent, ages 7 and 13. The two are not related and became separated from their parents in Mexico, according to CNN.
A man claimed that he would help them cross the river and enter the U.S., the two reportedly told the agents, but abandoned them.
Their rescue comes amid a surge of migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors, making the treacherous journey across Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they hope to apply for asylum or eventually be reunited with family members.
The Biden administration has struggled to handle the surge amid GOP criticism of the president’s reversals of several controversial Trump-era immigration policies, while the president’s critics on the left have chastised the government over the conditions in which minors are kept after arriving at the border.