El Paso Sector Border Patrol officials report that at least 2,500 migrants illegally crossed the border along a small section of the New Mexico Border. The migrants crossed the border this fiscal year as part of large groups of Central American families and unaccompanied minors near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry.
In an area that normally only sees a few hundred illegal border crossings per year, El Paso Sector officials reported that 25 large groups of migrants crossed the border near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry in the first few months of Fiscal Year 2019. The Border Patrol defines a “large group” as more than 100 people, FOX14 reported.
This small section of the border is patrolled by agents assigned to the Lordsburg Station. Due to the remoteness of this area, agents are assigned to work from Camp Bounds Forward Operating Base at Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The Lordsburg Station falls under the supervision of the El Paso Sector.
During the entirety of Fiscal Year 2018, which ended on September 30, 2018, the El Paso Sector reported apprehending a total of 31,561 migrants. Those included 12,312 family units and 5,461 unaccompanied minors, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 2018 Southwest Border Migration Report. Officials told Breitbart News in December that the Lordsburg station’s apprehensions represent a small portion of those numbers. And, the Camp Bounds Forward Operating Base, located in the extreme southwestern part of the New Mexico boot heel, accounted for a small portion of that.
However, since the new fiscal year began on October 1, 2018, at least 25 groups of more than 100 migrants have been apprehended. Fox14 reported that Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 300 migrants last week alone — one group of 247 and a second group of 115.
Officials told the local Fox affiliate that smugglers have started using the large groups of migrants as a distraction to tie up Border Patrol agents while they smuggle drugs across the border elsewhere.
Officials said that at about the same time the agents engaged with this very large group of migrants, drug smugglers reportedly moved a load of 265 pounds of marijuana across the border west of Antelope Wells.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the pressure on Border Patrol agents due to the unsecured border is pushing the system “to a breaking point.”
Now it appears that drug smugglers are attempting to take advantage of the overwhelming nature of the crisis at our southern border by exploiting these families and children and pushing them to remote and desolate areas of the border to make their crossing.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for the Breitbart Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.