McAllen, Texas – On a frigid night along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, a group of about 20 migrants, including unaccompanied children, are met by border officials near midnight Friday after making the perilous journey to seek asylum. It was done.
“We have 22 people. One of them is a single adult male. The rest are family units or unaccompanied children,” said Chris Cabrera, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. He spoke to a small group of reporters standing meters away. .
“I believe we have four unaccompanied children between the ages of 7 and 11. We also have a family unit. One of them has a little boy who is about 16 months old.”
Cabrera said they are from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador. After presenting themselves to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, they board a bus on the U.S. side, where their asylum claims will be further processed.
Illegal immigrant population surges under Biden administration: government data
A bus waits for immigrants to be processed by U.S. border officials near the U.S.-Mexico border. (Elizabeth Elkind)
But it's not just asylum seekers that agents encounter there, Cabrera explained.
“We have runners in the same area…and we see a lot of drugs coming through here. And sometimes money and guns will flow south through here. Let's smuggle it in. There will be people in Mexico. “
A union spokesperson said that while encounters with migrants at the border had declined this month, officials were overwhelmed with encounters with more than 300,000 migrants in December, a record high.
“I remember there was a time when there were 400 people with one or two agents,” he said.
Biden administration considers further deportations to Venezuela as migrant numbers break records
He spoke to reporters near the port of entry in McAllen, Texas, about 100 meters from the Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border. Ladders were scattered across the field that migrants had used to climb the 15-foot drop over the wall.
Cabrera said the ladders were primarily used by smugglers to try to bring people into the country illegally in a “coordinated effort.”
“Right now, at any given time, we're going to have 40, 50 people turn themselves in,” he said. “And while our agents are doing the paperwork on them…there are three different groups within half a mile of here, throwing ladders at the wall…all the people and who we are writing up. I know I can't handle it.'' Climb the wall at the same time. ”
A handmade ladder abandoned in a field near the U.S.-Mexico border (Elizabeth Elkind/Fox News)
A CBP veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the field, he said the environment in which he works has “changed dramatically” in recent years.
“Before, it was the norm to have downtime. We had busy seasons. … People would come to plow fields and harvest crops. And everyone would come in November, December We returned home to the moon and began our journey back, heading north again at the beginning of this year,'' Cabrera said.
“Last year, we had a record number of arrests in December. People don't come to pick crops in December.”
Cabrera noticed a change in the people arriving.
“Not everyone is coming to work,” he said. “They come seeking asylum, or the illusion of exile.
“Living in a bad neighborhood is not asylum. Not being able to find a job is not asylum. Running away from religious persecution is asylum. But for some reason, this administration has decided that asylum is not what they want. “I decided that was the case,” he said. .
A record surge in illegal immigration since 2021 has strained local infrastructure in Texas and other areas along the border. It has also caused problems in Democratic-run major cities where immigrants are being sent, such as New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Added a ladder near the trash can near the port of entry. (Elizabeth Elkind/Fox News)
The next day, Cabrera pointed out that the flow of illegal drugs was extending further north.
“The Rio Grande Valley doesn't have a heroin problem. The Rio Grande Valley doesn't have a methamphetamine problem. Heroin gets here, but it doesn't stay here,” he said. “We don't have MS-13. … They're in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C. They're coming through here, they're not staying here. They're heading to your area. Masu.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
This comes as Democrats and Republicans in Washington are negotiating policy changes to control the border crisis, with Republicans pushing for tougher measures than the left has so far embraced.
Mr. Cabrera was concerned that his message to D.C. was “not falling on deaf ears” and implored federal officials to put aside partisanship.
“They need to put this aside as a partisan issue, but it's not. They need to resolve it in the interest of this country,” he said.
