‘Heartbreaking’ says Texas farmer who found 5 abandoned migrant girls, all under age 7, near border

QUEMADO, Texas -- A Texas farmer found five young migrant children who had been abandoned, resting on the ground in the hot sun on his ranch land along the border near Quemado in Maverick County, officials said Monday.

Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-District 23) shared what he and U.S. Border Patrol agents called a "heartbreaking" photo of the five unaccompanied children, all girls under the age of 7 - with the youngest being just 11 months old. Three were said to be from Honduras and the other two from Guatemala.

“It is heartbreaking to find such small children fending for themselves in the middle of nowhere... these little girls could have faced the more than 100-degree temperatures with no help,” said Chief Border Patrol Agent Austin Skero II.

Officials said the children fortunately were "uninjured, healthy, in good spirits" and did not require medical attention. They were handed off to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for care after being processed by Border Patrol over the weekend.

"While we thank God they were found alive, these tragic scenes are happening more and more," said Gonzales, who posted a conversation on social media that he had with the farmer who discovered the young girls.

The farmer, whose name was not provided, said he was making the morning rounds on his farm when he spotted the children.

"It was about 8:30 in the morning, just driving along and all of a sudden I see them there, beside the bank, here on the river, five little baby girls all by themselves, hungry, crying. One didn't have any clothes on," the farmer told Gonzales, adding that he first called Border Patrol and then reached out to the county constable.

"I don't think they would've made it if I hadn't found them," the farmer told the congressman.

You can watch the entire conversation in the video player below.