<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655755250910,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-727c-d9b2-af6f-f7ff06a00003","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655755250910,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016c-727c-d9b2-af6f-f7ff06a00003","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55396918", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1034103"} }); ","_id":"00000181-82b3-d66a-a7c3-c7bf2d250000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video Embed
AUSTIN, Texas — The largest-ever caravan of migrants to head to the U.S. southern border broke down days into its journey from southern Mexico, appearing unsuccessful.
But three federal and local law enforcement officials based in South Texas’s Del Rio region told the Washington Examiner on Monday that many from the caravan successfully evaded Mexican authorities and were able to cross the border illegally into the United States over the past several days.
“I talked to one of our federal partners early this morning,” said Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez of Val Verde County, Texas, whose county runs up against 110 miles of the Mexican border. “They’re getting remnants of the caravan. Yesterday, they had just shy of 2,000 people apprehended in the sector, which is probably an all-time high for the day.”
Martinez, a Democrat, said most illegal crossings are taking place about 50 miles southeast of Del Rio, a small border town where tens of thousands of primarily Haitian migrants came across and set up an encampment outside town last September. Downriver, closer to Eagle Pass, Martinez and a Border Patrol agent both said a group of 500 migrants was apprehended Saturday. Border Patrol considers a large group to be 100 or more people, making Saturday’s apprehension significant.
TEXAS MILITARY AND POLICE PRACTICING HOW TO DETER MIGRANT CARAVAN AT BORDER
Over the weekend, a group of about 200 migrants from the disbanded caravan was apprehended outside of Eagle Pass, the three officials said.
“Those are the ones that are just turning themselves in. That’s all that at this time can be accounted for,” Martinez added.
The massive groups are pushed across the border by cartels, whom migrants pay to get them across the border. Cartels, which are cross-border criminal organizations that smuggle people and drugs, took advantage of the flailing caravan as it fell apart when the Mexican government offered people humanitarian visas to reside and work in the country. In addition to charging migrants a fee to get to the U.S., they use migrants to divert Border Patrol to certain areas, allowing them to funnel criminals and drugs across unguarded areas.
Sheriff Tom Schmerber, whose Maverick County encompasses Eagle Pass, said Mexico’s barring migrants from buying bus tickets has forced them to walk great distances, prompting them to pay smugglers.
“It’s actually giving business to the cartel, to the smugglers,” Schmerber said.
789560AB-7040-4D84-8BCD-A3A9686A99F6.JPG
The caravan embarked from southern Mexico in early June under the direction of migrant activist Luis Garcia Villagran. The group was estimated to have between 6,000 and 11,000 people, and it quickly took over major roads as its members walked north toward the U.S. The caravan was expected to grow to 15,000 participants, which would have made it the largest group since the phenomenon of mass migration movements began early on in the Trump administration.
The Mexican government responded to the caravan by issuing an unspecified number of humanitarian visas allowing recipients to reside and work in the country as an incentive not to continue on to the U.S.
Although the size of the caravan decreased after the visas were made available, reports late last week indicated that smaller groups of migrants had chosen to take buses to the border. As Schmerber explained, the government’s crackdown on buses has caused some migrants to employ cartels’ help in getting to the border.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said June 17 that the state was ramping up security operations along its southern border with Mexico, shoring up military and police forces in anticipation of the arrival of a watered-down version of the caravan. Abbott said National Guard troops were trained in how to block large groups of people, though the weekend’s influxes meant that migrants were not stopped from crossing.
The Del Rio area has become a top destination for migrants and the epicenter of the border crisis. The rising numbers in Del Rio signal that smugglers are having migrants cross through regions of the border where there is no wall or fence. For example, shortly after more than 100 miles of wall was installed around Yuma, Arizona, Border Patrol agents saw smugglers shift to new areas because they could not get large groups over the 30-foot barrier installed during the Trump administration.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Schmerber said the Mexican towns across the border from Del Rio and Eagle Pass are also considered safer than other northern Mexico cities, making them more ideal for migrants to approach than Reynosa, Juarez, or Tijuana.
