EAGLE PASS, Texas — More than 500 migrants in a single group stormed across the Rio Grande River into Eagle Pass, Texas, in a single group earlier this week. The group consisted of Venezuelan, Colombian, and Central American migrants.
Law enforcement authorities on both sides of the border were unable to keep the migrants from crossing into the small border town, where they were turned over to the Border Patrol for processing on Wednesday afternoon.
Most of the group consisted of adult males and females. A few families could also be seen with some adults carrying small children on their shoulders.
Efrain Gonzalez, a local reporter in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, captured the chaotic scene from the banks of the Rio Grande in Mexico. In a posting on X, Gonzalez asked the migrants where they were from, with many claiming to be Venezuelan and Central American migrants.
As the group entered the river, many complained about conditions in Mexico and the treatment they received from Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) while in the country. The video shows the large group of migrants stretching from the Mexican river bank to the United States side in Eagle Pass.
According to a source within CBP, not authorized to speak to the media, the initial count of migrants taken into custody by the Border Patrol was slightly more than 500. The source said authorities believed an additional 100 migrants were staged in Mexico and prepared to cross later in the evening.
The source told Breitbart Texas the group was taken to a soft-sided processing facility north of Eagle Pass. The facility, according to the source, is almost three times over its capacity to hold 1,000 migrant detainees. Most of the migrants will be released to pursue asylum claims in the United States.
The Del Rio Sector of the Border Patrol, which includes the city of Eagle Pass, is the second busiest for migrant crossings along the southwest border. In October, more than 38,000 migrants were apprehended crossing the Rio Grande into the sector. Wednesday’s large migrant group crossing was the largest encountered since September, when more than 45,000 migrants landed in the busy Texas sector.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, a significant surge of migrant crossings into Eagle Pass overwhelmed authorities, with one single migrant group numbering more than 2,000 crossing into the small border city. The surge that lasted for several weeks in September outpaced the number of mostly Haitian migrants apprehended in Del Rio, Texas in September of 2021.
The increase in migrant crossings captured the attention of X social media platform owner Elon Musk and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom visited the small Texas border city as a result.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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