Thread: 375 migrants detained after crossing under fence into US at Yuma

Nearly 400 migrants detained after crossing under fence into US

By Jeremy Diamond and Geneva Sands, CNN
Updated 11:02 PM ET, Thu January 17, 2019


Close to Yuma, Arizona, and the San Luis Port of Entry, a fencing system is used that consists of multiple barriers.


(CNN) Nearly 400 migrants burrowed under a fence on the US-Mexico border earlier this week and crossed into the United States, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

US Border Patrol officers stationed in the Yuma, Arizona, sector took about 375 migrants into custody on Monday after they had made it into the United States, one US official said, calling it an unusually large apprehension. It was not immediately clear if the migrants voluntarily surrendered to Border Patrol officials or if they were caught after attempting to evade authorities.

The "vast majority" of the group were family members arriving from Guatemala, said National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, who was in contact with a Border Patrol agent involved in the incident in Yuma.

"It's the largest I've ever heard of," said Judd when asked if this was a significant number for a single group.

There are often groups of 20 to 30 people, sometimes as large as 100, apprehended in the Yuma area, according to a Customs and Border Protection official.

A Customs and Border Protection agency spokesperson declined to comment.

The incident comes as President Donald Trump continues to demand funding for new barrier construction on the US-Mexico border as the government shutdown nears its fourth week, saying there is a "crisis" at the border that can only be solved with the construction of new border walls or fencing.

While Border Patrol officials have discovered sophisticated tunnels used to move people or drugs under existing border fencing, one US official familiar with the incident said the migrants involved in Monday's crossing had simply dug a hole under the border fence and slipped underneath. A Customs and Border Protection official confirmed that "a large group" of migrants "breached the border wall."

"They dug under the fence," said Judd. "Unlike most areas along the border, Yuma has some very sandy areas that is easy to dig in."The migrants were taken into custody about 10 miles east of the San Luis Port of Entry, along a stretch of the US-Mexico border lined with older fencing -- steel panels welded onto posts that previously served as vehicle barriers, with little foundation to speak of.

Some fencing in the Yuma area is expected to be replaced with new fencing paid for with funds appropriated by Congress last year. CBP has not confirmed exactly where the new fencing will be placed.

In November, a group of around 80 migrants from Guatemala -- primarily families -- were apprehended by Border Patrol after climbing over the legacy landing mat border wall east of the San Luis Port of Entry.

Hours later, another group of around 80 people entered the United States by digging a shallow hole underneath the same portion of wall, according to CBP.

"This old portion of wall lacks the improved concrete footer that new wall prototypes have which prevents easy digging underneath," CBP said in a press release at the time.

Monday's group of migrants was the first of at least two large groups to arrive at the US border this week. Nearly 250 migrants -- mostly Central American migrants, including families and small children -- were also detained by Border Patrol agents on Wednesday after surrendering at a Border Patrol outpost on the New Mexican border.

There has been a recent spike in total Border Patrol apprehensions in the Yuma sector, up from 2,117 in fiscal year 2017 to 26,244 last year.

However, it used to be much higher. In the mid-2000s, more than 100,000 migrants were apprehended annually in the Yuma region.

The Trump administration has pointed to a reduction in border crossings from their all-time high in Yuma sector to make the case that walls work.

Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants across the US-Mexico border have increased in recent months, spurred on by a surge in families seeking asylum at the US border.

But border security experts have questioned whether Trump's demand for nearly $6 billion in funding for a new steel slat barrier along hundreds of miles of the border is the best use of resources to stem illegal immigration into the United States. Questions also remain about whether a wall would alleviate the humanitarian situation driven by an uptick in asylum seekers presenting themselves at the US border.

Some border security experts have instead called for improving security at ports of entry and adding new technology along the border to detect and deter illegal crossings.

Even as statistics show that nearly 90% of drugs that come through the southern border are concealed and pass through legal US ports of entry, Trump has insisted without evidence that a border wall will help drastically reduce the flow of drugs and crime in the United States.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/polit...nce/index.html

They need to be charged with vandalism and destruction of property and digging on someone else's property without a permit.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

"It's the largest I've ever heard of," said Judd when asked if this was a significant number for a single group.

There are often groups of 20 to 30 people, sometimes as large as 100, apprehended in the Yuma area, according to a Customs and Border Protection official.

A Customs and Border Protection agency spokesperson declined to comment.

20 to 30 people huh....

These BP spoke persons should get about a 1,000 miles away from the border, pick up a newspaper, read here, they might learn something.

Not only can BP not

Stop them from entering
They don't even know they have entered until they turn themselves in
and
Some don't even know as much about what is happening as Granny and Gramp a 1,000 miles away reading online.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Nearly 400 migrants detained after crossing under fence into US

Where is the Military?

When is Trump going to SHUT THE WHOLE BORDER down and start deporting them!

San Luis is a cartel town.

VIDEO AT THE LINK.

Largest single group of migrants ever tunnels under border wall in Arizona, says Border Protection

A group of 376, including nearly 200 minors, was arrested.

By Matt GutmanSAN LUIS, Ariz. — 1h ago

The largest single group of asylum seekers ever to cross into the U.S. tunneled beneath the border wall near San Luis, Arizona, on Monday, voluntarily turning themselves into Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency.

Migrants can be seen marching toward Border Patrol agents by the hundreds, according to video obtained by ABC News. Smugglers dug a series of seven holes, only a few feet long beneath the steel border fence, with hundreds going beneath the wall and a smaller number clambering over it, according to CBP.

The fresh sand and scuff marks of shoes on the rusty steel were still there when ABC News visited the site on Thursday.


(Yuma Sector Border Patrol) A record large group of migrants tunneled under the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officials for asylum.

The agency says 179 of the record 376 people who crossed were children, including over 30 unaccompanied minors -- children under 18 traveling on their own.

The overall number of unauthorized crossings has plummeted since its peak in the 2001, when CBP logged about 1.6 million apprehensions, according to government statistics. However, the demography of those crossing has changed dramatically.
(MORE: Leaked memo shows Trump administration weighed separating families at border, despite saying it was never policy)

Parents with children now comprise over 80 percent of the total apprehensions of those crossing the 2,000-mile long border with Mexico. The vast majority of them, like the group near Yuma Monday, surrender immediately or seek out Border Patrol agents in order to begin the asylum process.
CBP Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik said his unit needs better border barriers, but more urgently it needs funding to provide for these families.

"That's our No. 1 challenge that we have here in the Yuma sector, is the humanitarian problem," Porvaznik said. "As I mentioned, 87 percent of the apprehensions here are family units and unaccompanied alien children."


(Yuma Sector Border Patrol) Seven tunnels were dug underneath the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, as a record group of migrants entered the U.S.

The mass crossing this week took place in a sparsely populated stretch of the border -- where an old model of border barrier rises about 12 feet from the sandy ground. The stretched agency only had three agents patrolling that 26-mile-long section of the border.
It took hours to process the families, most of which were sent to the area’s chronically overcrowded central processing center in Yuma.

"In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people," Porvaznik said. "That's really unheard of."

On Thursday, hundreds of asylum seekers were being held in cinderblock cells with thick glass windows that overlooked a central bullpen where CBP agents worked to process them and provide humanitarian needs. The asylum seekers were separated into cells: fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, unaccompanied minors and mothers with children.

As in all such facilities, the CBP said it works to process them as quickly as possible, and provides basic medical care. Still, detainees eat, sleep and use the bathroom in the same room. Scraps of food mingled with silvery space blankets on the floor. In one cell, several boys had balled up the blankets into a makeshift soccer ball they were kicking around.


(Yuma Sector Border Patrol) A record large group of 376 migrants tunneled under the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officials for asylum.

One man in the group said he left Guatemala eight days ago and made most of the trip by bus along with his 12-year-old daughter. They were planning to leave the processing center destined for San Diego -- plane ticket in hand.

The father said he saved about $5,000 to pay a coyote to quickly get them to the border. He left a wife and two younger daughters back in Guatemala. Next to them were a mother and two daughters on their way to Cincinnati, also from Guatemala. They too traveled by bus and the journey took about eight days.

Just two days after the group tunneled under the border wall in Yuma, the Border Patrol took in another huge group of migrants in New Mexico. The 247-person group, including unaccompanied minors, crossed near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry and immediately surrendered to authorities for processing.

The CBP said 24 large groups -- quantified as 100 or more -- have crossed the border near Lordsburg, New Mexico, just since Oct. 1, 2018.

ABC News' Ignacio Torres and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-co...ry?id=60462672

Process and deport these criminal trespassing illegal aliens. Send their UAC's immediately back into the care and custody of their President.

Shut down this human trafficking ring facilitated by the Cartels, corrupt Mexican government and corrupt Central American governments!

No taxpayer funded medical care, bus ride, airplane ride, hotels or food within the USA. We are not their Uber driver, we are not their Travel Agent and taxpayers are not responsible for their travel!

Mexico let them in...send them right back to Mexico. Mexico gave them travel permits with the SOLE intention of dumping them over our border!

Give them a voucher for a bus ticket back home!

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Where is the Military?

Nov 3. 2018


What the military can and cannot do at the border
...
Troop activities are limited by law


The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts the U.S. military from acting as law enforcement on U.S. soil.


This means troops will not be authorized to "detain immigrants, seize drugs from smugglers or have any direct involvement in stopping" the migrant caravan, the Military Times reports. Instead, troops will "largely mirror that of the existing National Guard" already at the border.
...
https://www.axios.com/what-the-milit...c73bf7ea7.html

Two more YEARS of these incompetent cry babies on both sides of the isle...then golly gee folks...we get to vote for the Kindergarter Class of 2020 to pass the baton to.

Originally Posted by Beezer

When is Trump going to SHUT THE WHOLE BORDER down and start deporting them!

Yep, we're hearing a lot about the large number of illegals entering but very little on what's actually happening to them. What was the total number released into the United States in 2018? How about so far this year? Catch & release has got to end! Furthermore, our damn judicial system is moving entirely to slow.