AUSTIN, Texas — Approximately 400 migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday evening and entered the small town of Eagle Pass before either surrendering to Border Patrol or running through neighborhoods to avoid capture.
Videos shared with the Washington Examiner from federal law enforcement in Eagle Pass show a group of hundreds of people standing near the Rio Grande after crossing the river late Wednesday and being apprehended by Border Patrol.
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“As a winter storm moves into the area, Eagle Pass agents arrest another group of 400. 400 people don’t just coincidentally decide to cross together. These are large-scale events orchestrated by criminal elements for $$,” the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector Chief Jason Owens wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday morning.
But others sought to evade federal, state, and local law enforcement and ran into a nearby neighborhood, a second video shared by law enforcement suggests.
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Eagle Pass Police Department Public Information Officer Humberto Garza said it was likely the people shown in the video were migrants trying to evade law enforcement.
“They’ve become so common that we’re actually getting a little complacent with it,” Garza said. “Here inside the city, we’ll get phone calls saying, ‘Hey, we saw two or three run through a yard.’ … Our guys are constantly responding to calls for possible undocumented persons.”
“From our front door of the station, you can see Mexico. We can look outside here sometimes, and we see them running across,” said Garza. “Our guys got a group the other day of 200.”
Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio region of Texas are responsible for guarding 245 miles of riverfront border land. From Friday, Jan. 14, through Monday, Jan. 17, agents encountered 4,400 people who illegally crossed the border, according to the top regional agent.
A day earlier, Owens disclosed another 400 people were taken into custody
“OVERNIGHT: Already a common occurrence, now happening daily. Large groups cross the Rio Grande & immediately turn themselves in to agents in Eagle Pass. This time, close to 400 in one group!” Owens wrote on Wednesday.
“It’s out of control and unbelievable,” Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
Maverick County has signed an agreement with the state to begin prosecuting all adult men who trespass onto private land after illegally crossing the international border. Schmerber said he is meeting with officials Thursday to talk about implementing the plan.
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The surge of people through south-central Texas has helped spur the state to launch its own efforts to secure its borders and stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling, which Gov. Greg Abbott said during a speech before the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s police orientation conference on Wednesday was a success.
