Video footage released by Customs and Border Patrol shows human traffickers abandoning a 5-year-old girl and 3-year-old girl at the southern border in the New Mexico desert in the dead of night. Fox News reports that the smugglers had dropped the girls over a 14-foot border barrier. 

The video was posted by El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez, and shows what she says were two human traffickers scaling the border fence and dropping each toddler onto the ground before throwing what appears to be their belongings afterwards.

Smugglers, under cover of night, scaled a 14 ft. border barrier and cruelly dropped 2 young children in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The girls, ages 3 & 5, were left miles from the nearest residence. Thank you STN Agents for rescuing these children! @CBP @CBPWestTexas pic.twitter.com/U91y2g8Lk1

— Gloria I. Chavez (@USBPChiefEPT) March 31, 2021

After doing so, the human traffickers retreat from the border fence and disappear into the night.

Agent Chavez said that the two girls were left “miles from the nearest residence” and were rescued by agents after being spotted through surveillance technology. 

"I’m appalled by the way these smugglers viciously dropped innocent children from a 14-foot border barrier last night. If not for the vigilance of our agents using mobile technology, these two tender-aged siblings would have been exposed to the harsh elements of desert environment for hours," Chavez stated.

"We are currently working with our law enforcement partners in Mexico and attempting to identify these ruthless human smugglers so as to hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law," she said. 

The incident could have ended badly and is one of countless scenes currently unfolding along the America-Mexico border. The Biden administration is struggling to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors, many of whom say they were spurred on by the president's rhetoric about granting them asylum.