Hundreds of migrants cross Arizona border after 'several busloads' dropped off in Mexico
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the early morning hours Thursday, several busloads of migrants were dropped off on Highway 2 in Mexico, just south of the Arizona border.
"They walked about 100 yards, climbed under and over the vehicle barrier that is the only infrastructure in that area and agents were called in to make the arrest," said acting Tucson Border Patrol Chief Jeffrey Self.
In total, 242 people -- mostly families from Guatemala -- were arrested when Border Patrol agents arrived at the scene after the migrants were detected by a mobile surveillance system.
This was one of the largest single groups crossing the Arizona border over the last year, according to Border Patrol, and comes on the heels of other large groups illegally crossing at other parts of the border.
Similar to other groups of families, these migrants willingly surrendered to Border Patrol with no attempts to evade or hide from authorities.
Earlier this month, Border Patrol agents stationed in the Yuma, Arizona, sector took around 375 migrants into custody after they had made it into the United States. Last week, a group of 306 migrants were taken into custody in a remote part of New Mexico near the border.
In Arizona earlier this month, agents encountered a group of 85 Central Americans after they arrived by bus and illegally entered the country in the same general area of Thursday's crossing.
In December, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan raised concerns that a new trend was emerging of very large groups of migrants arriving at the southern border by bus and unloading in remote areas.
"So far in this fiscal year, and this has been a brand-new phenomenon this fiscal year, we have started to see extremely large groups arrive together several times, usually once or twice a week since about mid-October," said McAleenan in December.
The trend appears to be continuing into the new year.
It was unclear exactly how the migrants on Thursday had made the journey from Guatemala to Arizona.
Of that group, 130 were children and 11 of those children arrived unaccompanied, without legal guardians.
"It's a situation where not only are we overwhelmed with the numbers and the fact that there are so many children and (families) that are involved in this," said Self, but also "the fact that our system is not set up to handle family units. It's set up to handle adults."
Coast Guard medical staff, including a physician, were flown on a helicopter to the Ajo Border Patrol station to screen every child in the group and more than a dozen adults complaining of medical issues. Two children were sent to the hospital with high fevers and were later re-released to Border Patrol custody.
"They are doing well," said Self.
The agency implemented more in-depth medical checks for children following the deaths of two Guatemalan migrant children after they had entered US custody in December.
The "positive" impact of the Coast Guard medical assistance, which frees agents for other work and prevented overwhelming the local hospitals, can't be "overstated," said Self.
Echoing comments made by other Border Patrol officials, Self pointed out that the Border Patrol facilities had been designed for single men, not children.
"Basically, you just turned an adult short-term detention center into ... basically, a day care center. There's nothing for them to do there. You've got to watch them, you have to separate them from non-family members, you only have so much detention space," he said.
Self told CNN that the increase in large group apprehensions is taking resources away from other border security missions, like narcotics interdiction.
The Arizona region has not seen a notable uptick in narcotics seizures, but the concern is that the large groups distract from agents' ability to prevent smuggling, according to Border Patrol.
"The manpower that is dedicated to having to deal with the children and the families really creates a situation where it makes us vulnerable in other areas of the border because we are having to collapse in on this one incident with additional resources that were out patrolling other parts of the border," which opens up other regions to exploitation, said Self.
Like other regions across the border, Arizona has also seen an increase in illegal crossing by families.
In fiscal year 2019 to date, Tucson Sector, which extends from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line, has seen more than a 231% increase in family apprehensions compared with the same period in fiscal year 2018, according to Customs and Border Protection. Border Patrol uses apprehensions as a measure of illegal crossings.
"Our agents, they embrace the humanitarian effort, but it impacts our ability to do border security versus having to do this humanitarian mission. And I would also add that most of our agents aren't trained to do a medical evaluation," said Self.
Although family apprehensions have reached record highs in recent months, overall numbers of illegal crossings are way down compared with highs in the late '90s and early 2000s.
In 2000, there were 616,346 total annual apprehensions in Arizona. That number was down to 52,172 last year.
"The border is stronger than that time frame," said Self, but "still areas of the border are ripe for exploitation."
Tags
Who is online
657 visitors
In the early morning hours Thursday, several busloads of migrants were dropped off on Highway 2 in Mexico, just south of the Arizona border.
how long do we have to put up with this?
Until Trump locks down the border - which probably won't be too far down the road.
Then why did he not sign the GoP approved Bill that would have given him the money to replace the vehicle barriers with slat fences?
he had 2 years and finally got what he wanted from the outgoing House.
And he rejected it.
Other than that it sounds like CBP ( and remote monitoring ) did their jobs very well.
Thanks for posing it.
From what I understand, McConnell passed a continuing resolution by voice vote on 12/19
and the House passes a Bill on 12/20 to send to the WH for a signature.
How Limbaugh or Coulter got involved is beyond me.
Still looking for a Bill number....
The only objectionable thing I can guess at
is that the extension was only good through 02/08/2019?
Perhaps the next paragraph gives an idea of why the house bill was not signed by Trump?
Thanks for the links Split Personality -
I think the debacle boils down to dysfunction at all levels / branches of government at this time … there will always be more questions than answers as to why....
It is craziness personified.
Why doen't the POTUS just pick a design and award a contract?
Waht is preventing that?
I have posted many times that most of the borders of CA, NM and AZ have some kind of wall or fencing or vehicle barrier because the Fed owns a 60 ft easement along the southern border ( not true for Texas ).
The vehicle barriers need to be replaced by pedestrian fencing or slat wall, whatever.
Congress has already allocated $1.6 Billion for the wall which is still available to Mr. Trump to act with.
Why hasn't he? ( Not directed at you personally )
They have spent roughly 96 million on replacement fence and prototypes so far......
It doesn't seem like there's a plan, just a demand for $$.
Most of the Big Bend Sector in TX ( 510 miles) is hostile, uninhabitable, mountainous Rio Grande Valley.
The rest is private property, Indian Reservations, National and State park lands.
Get down towards the 2006 Brownsville wall project and more money has been spent in court battles
than on actual slat fence which has huge gaps due to said court cases.
(During the shutdown, these cases proceeded and new suits were filed by the USA against resistant landowners)
That process is likely to be repeated by the remaining 5500 landowners between Brownsville and Del Rio,
roughly 700 miles except for existing fencing at existing POEs and international bridges like Laredo.
This is an interesting tidbit.
Known as H.J.Res.28 - Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019
Passed the House by voice vote after accepting S.54 a Senate amendment which was also passed on voice vote....
The only recorded vote was House Roll Call No. 46 before the Senate Amendment was added...
Not too many people wanted their names directly attached to it as a yes or no......
POTUS can't pick the design and award a contract. Technically, only the agency involved can do that, so that would be DHS.
I wondered why they don't do anything on land they already own.
Everyone seems to be zeroing in on Texas where there would be court battles and land taken from owners.
Unless that is the intent. Some want the feds to own all the land along the whole of the border.
Technically, you are correct, but in reality?
Apparently he can demand it or shut off their funding...
Do you really think Neilsen would do so without Trump's input?
When CA, NM and AZ were admitted to the Union, provisions were made for a 60 foot easement which the Feds control for border control.
Because Texas was a sovereign country and was still struggling with border issues and property rights issues with Mexico, when Texas was admitted in 1845, no such provision was called for. Friction over Texas borders resulted in another war.
The US-Mexico war which ended in 1848 addressed the official border lines but they failed to provide for the 60 foot easement ( because it was all private property or Indian Nations )
Congress again, kicked the can down the road in 1873, because no one thought it was a big deal, most of it being thought to be impassable
and there was no immigration issues at the time.
The real problems started in 1942 when we invited seasonal workers to stay year round because of the manpower shortage during WWII and by 1946
many were entrenched with children born in the USA.
Yellow is what Mexico recognized
Green is what Texas claimed, half of what would be NM, OK and CO.
I can also point to articles about people that don't want a barrier.
The point of my comment is, if they are so worried about the border, why don't they do anything to places they already have under their control. Instead of starting new court battles and land grabs.
'how long do we have to put up with this?'
I guess until Rump builds the wall.
Sure!
I don't think it is all that easy for some.
So Rump isn't actually building the wall himself?
Gee, I had no idea!
OUCH!
And these are just the people we managed to catch.
Right. So they come to this place because they know they can get across easily here. The barrier is meant to stop cars, not people, so it has huge gaps in it that a person can easily step through. Put up the kind of structure that Trump and the Border Patrol want and they won't be able to do this kind of thing.
If they know they can't do it, then they don't try. That means you don't have kids and families risking their lives in the desert. You defeat human traffickers because they can no longer deliver people, so family savings aren't lost. And money isn't even the only way those people get paid.
And that's just about the migrants, not the impact on the United States. There are so many good reasons to properly secure the border but Trump got elected so suddenly all that stuff is evil. That's some f-ed up politics right there.
Trump has "Congress" squirming over this. I don't care if gov. get's shutdown again or not.
This Gov. has had waaaaaay more time to solve this problem than it should have had ! Trump is just upping the anti waaaaaay up on time allowed now !
Time to do your JOBS Mr. and Mrs. "My job is Government" ! Can they for ONCE ?
It is so amusing to hear the mantra of the left on illegal immigration and the wall, "Apprehensions are down...". "There's no crisis in the border.". The current apprehension numbers only mean there were fewer unlucky people that got caught! That does not even account for the sheer numbers that actually cross successfully and make to points North, East, and West to disappear into the woodwork of our society. Progressive liberals on the left that live nowhere near the border really need to open their eyes to the realities on the border instead of swallowing the BS that is spoonfed to them by the liberal MSM.
Ed, I'm sure you have the same issue as one that we are facing here.
Each week, ICE/BP agents sweep in new housing areas that the Illegal Aliens are crashing in 'til they can hit the road again. Last week, they arrested 34 - (THIRTY-FOUR) living in a house in a fairly new neighborhood. 34 in one house. There are other apprehensions throughout the county, specifically in vacant properties.
Yeah, we don't have a problem.
SMDH