San Diego

A 6-month-old baby, whose Mexican mother left him with someone else as she fled from Border Patrol agents back across the Mexican border about 6 p.m. Sunday, has been reunited with his father, authorities said Thursday.

Jovane Guadalupe Zavala was reunited Wednesday with his father, a citizen of Mexico. Authorities said the infant’s mother, who was attempting to cross the border with a group of Mexican nationals, gave the baby to another person to hold. When the group was confronted by Border Patrol agents and tried to run back across the border, the man holding the child was caught, along with a few others. The mother escaped.

The father called Mexican juvenile authorities, who put him in touch with U.S. child protective services. After he described the child and produced the birth certificate, authorities handed the baby over to the father.