3 Adult Migrants, 3 Infants Rescued by Aircrew in Remote Rio Grande Border Area

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter aircrew rescued three adult migrants and three infants from a remote section of the Rio Grande border with Mexico. Human smugglers abandoned the migrants on a peninsula.

On Tuesday, a CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter aircrew patrolling the Rio Grande found a group of migrants in a Resaca (oxbow lake) near McAllen, Texas, according to information obtained from CBP officials. The aircrew observed there was no access via road to the remote area due to the dense vegetation coverage.

The McAllen Air Branch aircrew brought the Black Hawk to a low hover position and deployed an AMO Aviation Enforcement Agent and two Office of Field Operations Special Response Team personnel into the vegetation.

The crew then used a crash axe to widen out a landing zone to allow the helicopter pilot to make a one-wheel landing.

The deployed aircrew members went to the migrants stranded on a peninsula along the Rio Grande and guided them to the helicopter.

The aircrew then flew the migrants to awaiting U.S. Border Patrol agents from the McAllen Station.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents continue to experience a massive number of migrants illegally crossing the border from Mexico into Texas. Earlier this week, Breitbart Texas reported the apprehension of 2,000 migrants in a single day and more than 34,000 so far this month.

The March apprehensions already exceeded the total for the entire month of February.

In February, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents apprehended 10,489 Family Unit Aliens, according to the Southwest Border Land Encounters report. It is not clear from Chief Hastings’ tweet how many of March’s more than 34,000 migrant apprehensions were family units.