700 Migrants Apprehended in Large Group Texas Border Crossings Within a Week

The Del Rio Border Patrol Sector is dominated with large groups of migrants crossing the border. The detention centers in this sector are substantially overcrowded forcing the rapid release of migrants into the communities along the border.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz tweeted that for six days in a row, agents in the Del Rio Sector encountered large groups of migrants crossing the border. Border Patrol defines a large group as 100 or more migrants in a single crossing.

These crossings in the Del Rio Sector led to the apprehension of more than 700 migrants during the six-day period.

A few days earlier, Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens tweeted that his agents encountered four large groups in as many days.

He said the groups numbered 110, 115, 105, and more than 155. Owens noted these are just the large-group encounters and the numbers do not count those who trickle across by the hundreds on a daily basis.

Over the weekend, Owens reported his agents apprehended more than 2,500 migrants including 50 unaccompanied children and 637 family units.

The massive number of crossings in this West Texas sector led to overcrowding in detention facilities. Breitbart Texas’s Randy Clark published leaked photos showing migrants packed shoulder to shoulder in detention centers.

A source within CBP told Clark the overcrowded facilities from the current border surge remove line agents from the field. This allows smugglers to move other migrants who do not want to be apprehended and drug loads across the border with impunity.

It also prevents agents from being able to rescue migrants who may be drawing in the Rio Grande or dying on ranches in border counties and miles inland. Such rescues include the rescue this week of a four-year-old little girl who smugglers abandoned on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, Breitbart reported. Agents also carried out 13 other rescues over the past weekend, Owens reported.