Posted on 01/21/2019 1:09:02 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
LUKEVILLE, Ariz. - They crossed just before dawn. And there was little to stop them.
At around 5 a.m. last Monday, a group of 84 migrants hurried off a large tour bus on a Mexican highway, crawled under a small fence and walked into the United States.
Customs and Border Protection videotaped the migrants, all families from Central America, crossing the border in Quitobaquito Springs in Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, a four-hour drive from Tucson.
Border agents used a mobile surveillance capability truck to capture images of the crossing.
Fernando Grijalva, CBP’s patrol agent in charge of the area where the migrants were dropped off, said his agents use the cameras to monitor larger expanses of the border.
“He saw a bus stop on the Mexican side of the border,” Grijalva said. “The bus driver got out, opened the doors and then proceeded to have approximately 80 people exit the bus and cross into the United States illegally.”
Grijalva, who has worked with CBP for over 30 years, says this incident highlights what he calls a crisis on the southern border unlike anything he’s seen before.
“What’s changed is the dynamics of the groups,” Grijalva said. “Now it’s a lot of unaccompanied children or family groups.”
In the past, he said, border agents apprehended Mexican males crossing the border to find seasonal work.
Whether this amounts to a “crisis” has become a central issue in the partial government shutdown, now entering its fifth week.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I’m in Arizona as well. I live in Pinal County in a town that’s main drag is often used as a back road into the Phoenix metro area. These images scare the sh!t out of me. Please tell me these invaders are caught more often than not. It’s very disturbing to me if this is not the case.
If they were on camera then they were more than likely caught. The station does not like having to report got aways. Some do still get away, but we catch most of the ones that we know exist. The problem is the ones that we dont see, there is really no way to know how many crossed undetected.
98charlie wrote: “They are not released from station. They have to go to another station after ours. They might be released from there but I dont know for sure.”
How long may children be held in detention?
Are not children in most groups?
So NBC is admitting that we need a wall?
My station has not been seeing these large family groups. We do get some families but not the big caravan groups. Children that are with their parents are not separated from them in my facility. If a child has to go to the doctor we take the parent too. At my facility we catch more unaccompanied juveniles than we do family groups. These so called juveniles are used as guides, scouts and drug mules and get voluntarily returned to mexico. That being the case we see the same juveniles a lot.
I dont work detention very often and I am not sure how long a juvenile with a parent can be held. The rules on these types of things have changed the last few months. Generally speaking we dont hold anyone for long. We have to have people processed and on the bus in a certain amount of time.
98charlie wrote: “Generally speaking we dont hold anyone for long. We have to have people processed and on the bus in a certain amount of time.”
I’m not critical of the job you guys are trying to do. Obviously, you’re doing the best you can under the constraints placed upon you.
My point really is this: apprehending migrants and releasing them into the country pending their court date is a failed policy.
My second point it this: when they leave your facility, their next stop should be a release point back in Mexico.
I agree with you. As for a return point back into mexico, it is done at times and in my opinion it has been a failure and a waste of tax payers dollars.
The program I am referring to is the one which we fly illegals back to mexico at a point that is closer to where they came from instead of dropping them at the port. It sounds like a good idea, but the problem is it does not deter them from coming back. We see people in detention that were flown back to mexico within two to three days in detention again. It is actually a program that has been tried many times over the years.
I have a book entitled the border patrol that was written in the 1930s and a similar program is mentioned in the book along with many other failed policies and programs that we continue to use to this day.
Bottom line is we need a better barrier and we need to remove all incentives to cross or the problem will never end.
98charlie wrote: “Bottom line is we need a better barrier and we need to remove all incentives to cross or the problem will never end.”
On that, we are in complete agreement.
One point though, if the choice is between returning them to Mexico and allowing them to enter the US while awaiting a court date, I’d vote for returning them.
We completely agree. In 90 percent of the cases they should be sent back.
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