Two Ecuadorian girls, 3 and 5, were thrown in the middle of the night from the top of a four-meter wall on the border between Mexico and the United States, the United States Customs and Border Protection reported on Wednesday ( CBP).
A surveillance camera operator alerted officers at a checkpoint, who then proceeded to this remote area of ​​the state of New Mexico.
“On Tuesday evening, a Santa Teresa camera operative saw a smuggler drop two young children from the top of a border wall 14 feet high,” CBP said in a statement.
The girls were taken to a CBP station in Santa Teresa, New Mexico for medical examinations, and then transported to a local hospital as a precaution.
“I am stunned by the inhumane way in which these smugglers threw innocent children from the top of a 14-foot wall last night,” Patrol Leader Gloria I. Chavez said in a statement.
Mme Chavez said US border guards were working with Mexican authorities to find the culprits.
“Without the vigilance of our agents with the help of mobile technologies, these two very young sisters would have been subjected for hours to the rigors of the desert,” she added.
The United States faces a sharp increase in arrivals at the border: more than 100,000 irregular migrants were arrested in February at the southern border, including nearly 20,000 family members and 10,000 unaccompanied minors.