Law enforcement removed primarily Venezuelan migrants.
QUICK FACTS:
- Mexico deployed its riot police and National Guard troops several days in a row to break up an encampment of Venezuelan migrants near the south side of the Rio Grande river.
- The encampment contained almost 600 non-citizens from Central America who migrated to the border in mid-October hoping to gain entry into the United States.
- When the homeless immigrants realized they were being evicted from their tent city they began to fight back, but eventually left of their own accord.
- Local authorities offered busses to allow Venezuelans to go to shelters, but only about 94 of the 600 agreed.
- One former tent-city dweller claimed they were treated as if they were “not human beings” in the shelters: “They will keep us at the shelter for a week, they will ask us for a valid reason every time we want to go out [….] and then they will send us back (to Venezuela),” the migrant said.
OFFICIALS STATEMENTS:
- “There will be a police presence to prevent them from going to the river. I know that today we see them in other places. We’ll start a dialogue because we are trying to avoid new settlements,” City Secretary Hector Ortiz said at a news conference on Monday.
- “The International Boundary and Water Commission had alerted us to some safety concerns. There was a risk of drownings with the tents too close to the river. There was also a high risk of fire. They had a lot of tents with blankets inside and at the same time they had wood stoves and lit fires at night to mitigate the cold temperatures,” Ortiz said. “They were in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. […] This was communicated to (the migrants), we realized we would not convince them to leave, so at noon the cleanup began.”
BACKGROUND:
- Illegal immigration has hit record highs and recent reports from October showed that in addition to the traditional points of entry, hundreds of illegal Immigrants entered Normandy, Texas in just one crossing.
- Thermal drone footage showed the track over the U.S.-Mexico border, American Faith reported.
- “Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector has already had over 46,000 illegal crossings since October 1st, including 1,700+ in [the] last 24 hours,” said FOX reporter Bill Melugin.
- During the fiscal year of 2022, more than two million migrants were caught by Border Patrol, setting records. Some of these individuals were caught several times, evidently released before making another attempt to cross.
