Government reports indicate that more than 1,100 Central American migrants cross illegally per day into the U.S. along the southwest border with Mexico. Breitbart News traveled to the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas where hundreds of migrants cross daily.
Breitbart News’ Border/Cartel Chronicles Editor-in-Chief Brandon Darby and journalist Ildefonso Ortiz traveled to the Texas-Mexico border to film groups of Central American migrants as they crossed from Reynosa, Mexico, and entered the U.S. The trip followed reports of hundreds of migrants crossing the border in this sector on a daily basis. Darby and Ortiz interviewed some of the families to learn why they are making the hazardous and costly journey to the U.S.
Following the interviews, Darby and Ortiz discussed the impact these migrants have on keeping wages down for Americans seeking lower-skilled employment. The migrants are currently able to exploit loopholes in U.S. immigration and human trafficking laws by attempting to claim asylum. They also discussed the revenue stream these migrants represent to the Mexican cartels.
“You think about U.S. workers,” Darby said, “and especially low-income U.S. workers — you think about U.S. sovereignty — and you think ‘This is messed up.'”
“And then, on the other hand,” Darby continued, “you think, ‘well, you can’t really blame them. We have policies that allow it.'”
One of the women said she came to the U.S. because of domestic violence and the inability to see justice in her own country. She did not explain why she did not seek asylum in Mexico or some other country along her route.
“That woman we just spoke with,” Ortiz injected, “she said she’s requesting asylum because of a domestic situation at home. She’s claiming that there is no justice in her home country and that her husband was not going to be held accountable because he had money and power.”
About these types of crossings, Darby continued, “We’re going to see more and more of these groups come all evening long, and we’re going to see it tomorrow, and we’re going to see it the next day. And every day this is going to happen in a steady stream — right here, on this road, and these people are going to come and turn themselves in.”
While the nation currently focuses its attention on the caravan largely camped in Tijuana, more than 1,000 migrants per day cross the border from the Rio Grande Valley to the Yuma Sectors. A large percentage of these are Central American migrants who are not part of the infamous group.
In the Rio Grande Valley Sector alone, 41,470 crossed the border during the first two months of Fiscal Year 2019, which began on October 1. Of those, more than 30,000 were family units and nearly 8,000 were unaccompanied minors, according to the November Southwest Border Migration Report published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The largest number of these family units and unaccompanied minors came to the U.S. from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
In this single southern Texas border sector, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 700 mostly Central American migrants during this two-month period, the report indicates. Nationally, Border Patrol agents apprehended an average of more than 1,100 per day.
“These people had to go through the Gulf Cartel to get here,” Darby said about the migrants they encountered. “And, the Gulf Cartel made a lot of money off of every one of those people.”
Border Patrol officials have previously told Breitbart News that the cartels charge between $5,000 and $10,000 per person to be smuggled from Central America to the U.S. Looking at one group of migrants being processed by Border Patrol agents, Darby said, “That’s at least $100,000 for the Gulf Cartel.”
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Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Border/Cartel Chronicles. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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