Melania Trump was visibly moved by the tale of a six-year-old Costa Rican boy found abandoned in the desert in Arizona, during her visit in Arizona Thursday to visit border patrol facilities.
US Border Patrol agents came across the boy on Tuesday, June 20, just north of the Mexican border, west of Lukeville, as he sat all alone by the side of the road.
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The First Lady was shown pictures of the boy during a visit to a Customs and Border Patrol facility in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday.
Rodolfo Karisch, Chief Patrol Agent of the Tucson Sector Border Patrol showed Mrs Trump a photo of the unnamed boy, telling her he had been dumped by his uncle with nothing but a bottle of Coke and a note.
‘Oh God,’ local news website AZ Central reported Mrs Trump as saying. ‘It’s incredible, as young as six years old, you know, someone would leave them. Wow, very sad.’
Despite the searing heat, the boy can be seen wearing jeans and a long-sleeved top in the photograph.
The boy reportedly told agents he was on his way to see his mother in the US, and that his uncle had dropped him off without any food or water.
The note in his hand, written in Spanish, read: ‘I am looking for my mother’.
The boy, whose name had not been released, had been transported to a Tucson center for further processing, and is reportedly in good condition.
During her visit to the Tucson facility, Mrs Trump held a roundtable discussion with Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service and a local rancher.
‘I want to thank you for all your hard work. I know how difficult and dangerous your daily jobs are,’ Melania Trump told agents. ‘I am here to support you and help any way I can.’