376 illegals, including 179 kids, used 7 tunnels to get under the US border fence AZ.

376 migrants, including 179 kids, used 7 tunnels to get under the US border fence in Arizona


Michelle Mark, Insider
January 18, 2019

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Hundreds of migrants crossed the US-Mexico border in Arizona earlier this week, digging a tunnel under the barrier. Screenshot via ABC News

• Hundreds of migrants used tunnels to get under the border fence in Arizona earlier this week, ABC News reported.
• Video footage the outlet obtained shows the reported 376 migrants, including 179 children, walking alongside the US-Mexico border barrier near Yuma, Arizona.
• The footage comes amid a government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demands for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, which Democrats have refused to authorize.
• Trump’s opponents have argued that a border wall is ineffective in stopping illegal border crossings – in part, because of the tunnels.

Nearly 400 migrants crawled through seven tunnels under the border fence in Arizona earlier this week, before surrendering themselves in a group that Border Patrol agents estimate is the largest to ever be apprehended at once, ABC News reported Friday.

Video footage the outlet obtained shows the hundreds of migrants walking alongside the US-Mexico border barrier near Yuma, and photos showed a small hole that Border Patrol agents said the migrants had entered through.

“In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people,” Anthony Porvaznik, the Border Sector Chief in Yuma, Arizona, told ABC. “That’s really unheard of.”

Porvaznik added that the group included 179 children, more than 30 of whom were traveling without their parents. He said the most urgent solution his sector needed was more funding to provide for the families, though better border barriers was also important.

“That’s our No. 1 challenge that we have here in the Yuma sector, is the humanitarian problem,” he said. “As I mentioned, 87% of the apprehensions here are family units and unaccompanied alien children.”

Read more: The Republican who represents more of the border than anyone in Congress has an idea to secure the border, and it’s not a wall

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to INSIDER’s request for comment.

Migrants tunneling under the barriers isn’t uncommon, particularly in the Yuma sector, where Border Patrol agents spotted a group of 83 migrants digging under the barrier near the San Luis port of entry in November.

“Unlike most areas along the border, Yuma has some very sandy areas that is easy to dig in,” Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, told CNN.

CBP attributed the November tunnel to the fact that the border barriers in that sector were built using an outdated model.

“This old portion of wall lacks the improved concrete footer that new wall prototypes have which prevents easy digging underneath,” the agency said in a statement.

Judd added that the group of 376 migrants arrested this week was “the largest I’ve ever heard of.”

The news comes amid a month-long government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demands for a border wall. Trump has said the most effective way to prevent migrants from entering illegally is through border barriers, though his Democratic opponents have cited the tunnels as evidence the wall won’t work.

https://www.businessinsider.my/video...-fence-2019-1/

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.

WATCH | More kids separated from parents at border: Report

By Matt GutmanSAN LUIS, Ariz. — Jan 18, 2019 7:54 AM ET

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.

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(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."

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(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."

(MORE: Under President Donald Trump's administration, more kids separated at border than originally estimated: Report)

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.

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(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.

(MORE: A grandmother's 2,700-mile journey to Tijuana's migrant shelter and her wait for a family reunion)

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.

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