I said this weeks ago and it’s still true. Under the Biden administration we have migrant children intentionally separated from the parents, the only difference is that now it happens on the other side of the border. Today there’s a legitimately heartbreaking video of a young boy, maybe 10 or 11 years old and wearing a Batman t-shirt, who was encountered walking down a dirt road alone by an off-duty border patrol officer:

“I came with a group. They dumped me, and I don’t know where they are,” the boy says in Spanish as he chokes back sobs, video of the encounter from last Thursday and posted on Univision’s website shows. “They can rob me, kidnap me. I am afraid.”…

‘You do not know where they are at? They left you alone?’ the agent asked.

“They abandoned me,” he said. “I have come here to ask you for help.”

Here’s the video:

My son isn’t much older than this and the idea of abandoning him to a group of smugglers and having him wind up alone and lost somewhere is a nightmare. But there’s really no doubt that Biden’s opening of the border to unaccompanied minors is encouraging this behavior. That’s why we set a new record this month of nearly 19,000 minors apprehended.

It’s only been a week since this other horrifying video of smugglers hoisting two toddlers, aged three and five, over the border wall and just dropping them in the dirt and running back to Mexico. Fortunately, we had a camera there and the kids were picked up by Border Patrol and are safe, but this is insane.

In both of these cases, I’m very glad we have kind border patrol agents who speak Spanish who can help and comfort these kids, provide them a safe place to sleep and a meal. That’s the immediate part of this. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also think carefully about the conditions that encourage this behavior and try to discourage it. Because if we don’t do that then we’re setting ourselves up for more abandoned, crying kids some of whom may not survive being left alone in the desert. As the weather gets warmer this summer, there’s a real possibility one of these situations is going to end tragically. Stopping that from happening means discouraging parents from sending their kids across the border alone in the hope they’ll be able to stay for good.

Finally, here’s one more clip from a Houston news channel. In this one you’ll see an 8-year-old girl who came across the border alone with just a phone number in a plastic bag.