Border Patrol agents at Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Processing Center spent part of Christmas Day with unaccompanied immigrant minors.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
“These children are thousands of miles from home, and most of them are essentially alone for the holidays as they came here without their parents or another family member,” said Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr. “Christmas is a tough time to be without your family, so management at the CPC got together and raised money to purchase gifts for the kids and help make Christmas better for them.”With beaming smiles and excited cheers, the children greeted Santa Claus as he arrived on Christmas Day to deliver the gifts and homemade treats that were baked by the wives of Border Patrol agents.
Statistics recently released by CBP show the number of unaccompanied minors encountered thus far in the 2016 fiscal year. Should the trend remain steady, 2016 could see more unaccompanied minors than any year previous.
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