The Border Patrol rescued this Wednesday four Cubans who were swept away by the current of the Rio Grande, according to reported on Twitter Agent Jason D. Owens. Had the officers not acted, the migrants could have suffered “hypothermia, loss of motor function, altered consciousness, even death.”
Bryan Kemmett, agent in charge of the section of the city of Eagle Pass, in Texas, USA, warned of the transit carried out by families, “among them we see children that are getting smaller and smaller.” “Trying to cross the river with a two-month-old baby strapped to your chest or on your back is not easy. And desperation and panic take over and then they start to struggle,” he added.
Last February 4, a Cuban family was caught on video in Piedras Negras at the time of swimming across the Rio Grande to reach Eagle Pass and ask for asylum. The migrants took the risk despite being warned about the depth and temperature of the water. The material shows how the current dragged one of them, so he had to be helped.
While some choose to cross the river, others are carried by coyotes. Between Sunday and Monday, the Border Patrol detained 245 migrants, 26 of them Cubans, who had been introduced to the United States by human traffickers. According to agent Gloria Chávez, the timely work of the El Paso Sector represented a setback for the “criminal organizations” in this case.
“Trying to cross the river with a two-month-old baby strapped to your chest or on your back is not easy. And desperation and panic take over and then they start to struggle”
Chavez unveiled in your social networks the arrest last Sunday of a first group with 113 people, 58 of them from Nicaragua, 26 from Cuba, 21 from Guatemala, four from Venezuela, three from Brazil and one from Costa Rica. The data provided by the detainees helped confirm another similar event of illegal entry into the US.
The investigations led to the Texan community of Ysleta, where the Anti-Smuggling Unit (ASU) deployed an operation that culminated in a building located near Pellicano Drive. In the vicinity of the building, a truck with a trailer was located in which, when it was checked, Chavez explained, 132 migrants were found crowded together: “130 adults from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Ecuador and two unaccompanied Guatemalan minors.”
Among those detained are the driver of the vehicle and a companion who face charges of “conspiracy” and human trafficking. Regarding migrants, it was indicated that “adults were expelled to Mexico through the so-called Title 42”, which was promoted by the Donald Trump Administration and puts the global emergency due to covid-19 as an argument.
These arrests come at a time when the Border Patrol is facing one of the largest spikes in immigration on record at the border with Mexico. The United States Customs and Border Protection Office arrested 1.7 million immigrants last year, a high number due to the repeated arrests of people who were returned without an opportunity to request asylum and under Title 42.
In recent months, members of the Border Patrol have questioned US President Joe Biden’s policy of allowing children and families to seek asylum, which has encouraged irregular immigration.
Chavez made it known to MX Journal that in the last month 1,729 minors from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and Turkey were found by the authorities in the El Paso Sector. “Leaving children in the hands of strangers has become a common practice for criminals who profit from innocent lives.”
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