Los Angeles.
The government is sending more agents to control the flow of immigrants in the area of Valley of the Rio Grande, In Texas, where hundreds of unaccompanied families and children seeking to enter the United States have arrived in recent weeks, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Efe on Tuesday.
“Due to fluctuations along the southwestern border, the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is deploying additional agents in the area of operations of the sector of the Valley of the Rio Grande“, Assures CBP in statements sent to Efe.
More agents to deter immigrants
With these actions, CBP “seeks to deter and disrupt human trafficking activities by transnational criminal organizations and ensure that our personnel are properly equipped to maintain border security,” the border control agency adds.
In recent weeks, the Rio Grande Valley area has seen a wave of immigrants who have crossed the border undocumented.
Last Thursday, more than 230 undocumented people, including several unaccompanied children, were reported in various CBP operations in safe houses in the sector.
The largest group, 130 immigrants, was found near the city of Mission and was made up primarily of unaccompanied families and children from Central America, the agency noted.
In another operation last Tuesday, CBP officials alongside the Police Department of Pharr found 71 undocumented inside a house. In the group it was discovered that three children were traveling alone.
Other operations at the beginning of the month also report the finding of large groups of immigrants in this area of Texas.
The front door for families
The sector of the Rio Grande Valley became in 2018 one of the preferred steps for undocumented immigrant families trying to enter the country.
The situation forced CBP to undertake rescue-focused campaigns and to create awareness of danger such as the “Operation Big Rig“I”Don’t take any chances”.
“They’re human, don’t load!” The agency said in 2018 in the face of the increase.
The message seems to have gained relevance in recent months. Two weeks ago CBP agents received information that a pregnant Honduran woman was in danger somewhere near the Rio Grande.
Officers, who responded to the call for help, found the woman had given birth. The temperature near the Rio Grande that night felt below 30 degrees fahrenheit (-1 degree celsius), CBP detailed.
more agents
Tom Gresback, CBP spokesman for the Rio Grande Valley sector, told Efe that “due to the sensitivity of the information I cannot give further details on the total number of agents that will be deployed, the location and other aspects “.
Data on immigrants placed in custody in February are not yet available. However January of 2021 already set records by detaining nearly 78,000 immigrants along the border with Mexico in January, the highest number for this month in at least a decade and more than double the previous year .
Challenge for the Biden Administration
Confirmation of sending more agents to the border, and what could be a new wave of immigrants represents a challenge for the president’s administration Joe Biden.
However, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, Rejected on Monday at a press conference the claim that the situation on the border had become a crisis.
“There is a border challenge we are dealing with,” said Mayorkas, who urged those planning to travel to the US to seek asylum at the border not to do so “now” but to wait for the government to restore the migratory system dismantled by the previous administration.