Tucson Sector Border Patrol camera operators captured video of a bus dropping off a group of migrants at an unsecured portion of the border in southwest Arizona last week. The migrants quickly exit the bus and cross where no barrier exists to stop them.
The Border Patrol video, reported by NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez and Annie Rose Ramos, shows a bus approaching an unsecured portion of the Arizona-Mexico border during the early morning hours of January 14.
“He (the camera operator) saw a bus stop on the Mexican side of the border,” Ajo Station Chief Fernando Grijalva told Gutierrez “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.”
“This is a crisis,” Grijalva stated in reference to the large numbers of migrant families and unaccompanied minors who are now illegally crossing the border in record numbers.
As Border Patrol camera operators watched, 84 migrants exited the bus and simply walked across the unsecured section of the border and illegally entered the U.S. The video concludes with ground-based Border Patrol agents arriving to apprehend the migrants.
It is apparent in the video that young children are part of the group being dropped off in the middle of the desert.
The outdated barriers in this region provide human smugglers with an easy solution to moving their human cargo across the border.
Tucson Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Self also responded to a question about a crisis from Gutierrez. “Is there a crisis on the border?” Gutierrez asked “Yes, there is,” the chief responded emphatically.
This portion of the Tucson Sector, located in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, is protected only by a small barbed-wire fence and an outdated vehicle barrier that does nothing to stop pedestrian crossings.
When Gutierrez asked the chief a politically charged question, “Is the stand that the president is taking with it?” Chief Self responded with a non-political answer, “I can only tell you from focusing on field operations that border security is imperative to this nation.”
On the same day as this illegal border crossing, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents faced the crossing of the largest single group border crossing when 376 migrants exploited weaknesses in the old barrier technology to enter the U.S., Breitbart News’ Robert Arce reported. The 376 migrants managed to dig under the fence which does not have a concrete underground base utilized in newer barriers.
Due to the large numbers in this group and the time it takes to process minors and family units, Border Patrol officials were forced to bring personnel from surrounding locations to assist. This opens up other areas of the border to be exploited by drug smugglers.
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 Face
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