‘This needs to stop now’: Texas farmer finds five hungry, abandoned migrant girls on his land near southern border

‘It was really hot. I don’t think they would have made it if I hadn’t found them,’ says farmer Jimmy Hobbs

Five young migrant girls, all under the age of seven, were found abandoned on land near the southern border belonging to a Texas farmer as he made his rounds on Sunday.

He found the hungry, crying girls sitting in the dirt, one so young she could only crawl, and another just two years old. He fears they would have died had he not seen them.

“I was making a round of the farm and about 8.30 in the morning, I was just driving along and all of a sudden I see them,” said Jimmy Hobbs. “Five little baby girls, all by themselves, hungry, crying. One didn’t have any clothes on.”

“Immediately, I called border patrol but they’re snowed under, they don’t have any help either,” added the farmer, who grows onions and watermelons on his land near Quemado, Texas.

Mr Hobbs eventually called one of the workers on the farm and asked the man’s wife to bring them some food and water. Having brought the girls into the shade, they waited more than two hours for the authorities to show up.

“It was really hot. I don’t think they would have made it if I hadn’t found them,” he said.

Mr Hobbs and his wife, Katie, were interviewed by Representative Tony Gonzalez about finding the girls and their experience living on the US border with Mexico.

The Republican congressman posted the video to Twitter in a plea to President Joe Biden to take action to stem the flow of migrants coming into the country illegally from Central America via Mexico.

The five girls were found abandoned in a field near the southern border (Twitter/TonyGonzales4TX)

US Customs and Border Patrol identified three of the children as being Honduran nationals aged seven, three, and two. The other two girls are Guatemalan and are aged five and 11 months old.

The agency released a statement on Monday regarding the children, who did not require medical attention, and will be transferred to Health and Human Services custody.

“It is heartbreaking to find such small children fending for themselves in the middle of nowhere,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L Skero II. “Unfortunately this happens far too often now. If not for our community and law enforcement partners, these little girls could have faced the more than 100-degree temperatures with no help.”

In the interview with Mr Gonzalez, Ms Hobbs said: “It needs to stop right now.”

“There’s going to be thousands. This is just five miles of the Rio Grande. That’s a huge border, this is happening all up and down it,” she continued. “It can’t go on. It’s going to be too hot. There are going to be a lot of deaths, a lot of suffering this summer.”

The farmer pleaded for the president to tighten restrictions to stop people from flooding over the border and to come and see the crisis for himself.

“We’re talking about how the United States is a humane country — this is not humane anymore and it all started under [Biden],” he said. “He either needs to come down here and look at this himself or change it back.”

Ms Hobbs said that during Donald Trump’s presidency was the first time they had felt safe in 30 years because the hardline policies had stopped migrants crossing over the border.

“Change it back under Trump’s administration. For the first time in 30 years, we felt secure here,” she said. “It was working and it was working well. They stayed in Mexico.”

“A lot of people are going to die this summer and we’re going to be witness to it,” Ms Hobbs added.

Border Patrol detention centres now house more than 21,000 migrant children.