MIAMI – Heartbreaking video of a young boy begging a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer for help after the child was abandoned near the US-Mexico border has broken hearts across the globe.
Wilton Gutierrez Obregon, 10, had been wandering alone for hours in Texas near the border.
He was crying and shaking when he was discovered and filmed by the CBP officer.
“I was with a group of people and they dumped me and I don’t know where they are,” the boy said in the video.
Meanwhile, Wilton’s uncle, Jeronimo Obregon, who lives in Miami, was sent the video by someone he knew on What’s App.
Obregon told Local 10 News that his nephew and his sister Maylin, Wilton’s mother, fled Nicaragua last month, bound for the border and to escape alleged domestic violence that lasted years.
After crossing the border, the mother and son were sent to Mexico under Title 42, which requires asylum seekers to await their court hearings in Mexico.
It’s a Trump-era policy that still continues under President Biden. As soon as they arrived in Mexico, kidnappers were waiting.
According to Jeronimo, the kidnappers gave him eight days to come up with $10,000. But he could only gather $5,000, which led to a difficult choice. Who would go free?
Maylin and Jeronimo decided it would be Wilton.
Jeronimo said the kidnappers pledged to take the boy back across the border in a group.
Instead, they abandoned him, leading to the tearful, fearful and now viral encounter with a border patrol officer.
Wilton, now in U.S. custody, told his uncle he’s been studying and received vaccinations.
Maylin remains with her captors. Jeronimo said he has no idea how he will be able to pay for her release.