HIDALGO County, Texas. – Traveling north came to a screeching halt for twelve Latin American immigrants, on a dusty strip of gravel just a few miles from the Mexican border.
Three women and nine men, most of whom were from Honduras and Guatemala, were rescued from a smash house by the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office in Edinburgh, Texas on Wednesday morning as they were smuggled into the country and taken for ransom Were. .
20-year-old migrant Elizabeth Carrillo said, “I bleed here without clothes, very hurt, but this is for our children and our family.”
“We almost died [Rio Grande] When we crossed. ”
The rescue was seen by The Post with the Sheriff’s Office during a ride as they worked with the US Border Patrol for Operation Stonegarden, a federal grant program that helps local law enforcement units to assist with border security measures. Gives money
He was dispatched to the scene around 5 a.m. after Carolillo was told by relatives in New Jersey and other migrants were held by two men with guns who were refusing to leave until they were paid.
The Ecuadorian native reported, “If they told me anything that they would do something for me and my daughter, they told me that she was kidnapped by men after crossing the river alone.”
By the time police arrived, the smugglers were long gone. The migrants said they lived in a house across the street but no one responded when the police knocked on the door.
Carrillo is one of thousands of migrants who turned to the border in recent weeks, as President Biden relaxed the strict immigration policies set by his predecessor and one to frustrate foreigners in search of a better life Sent a more welcoming message.
“She said that Biden was going to help people,” Carrillo explained as she sat on the ground outside the Stade House with broken children’s toys and other migrants to take them to the Border Patrol for processing. Was waiting
“My aim was to come here with my family, work for five years and go back and live with my daughter. I only wanted to work to give my daughter a future. I never thought it was like this, ”the migrant said of his one-year-old child, who is under the care of his mother.
Juana Deborah Jimenez, 33, spent three months traveling from Mazetango, Guatemala to join relatives in Miami, find work and send money back for her two children, who were unable to attend school during the epidemic. She was confident that Biden would be more sympathetic to her plight.
“I came because he has more heart,” cried Jimenez.
“He is the President who can help us. He cares more about us than the other, and I felt that he would see our need and help us. Our own President does not care about us, ”went Mummy.
“I ask the president to help us … I think maybe he will see the need we have for the work.” If we did not need work, we would not have come this way. ”
As part of the operation, the sheriff’s office spends its time conducting traffic stops for vehicles suspected of human trafficking, migrants left behind by coyotes in the brush, or their carcasses collected , And raids and rescue raids are conducted at stash houses.
“Usually in the past, before the change of administration, we would work the stash house, but now the frequency we are not at,” explained Sergeant Robert Quat, who took The Post for a ride.
Biden had one to two human trafficking blasts every week before he took office, but recently, “there could be many in a day,” Quiet said.
“The coyotes were telling them that Biden opened the boundaries, so the caravan started coming. It has been picked up,” a deputy explained at the scene.
During a previous rescue, a deputy said that the migrants asked him “how are we processed?”
He said, ‘I said what do you mean that you get processed’ and he said ‘We will let us live as soon as we are told that we will be here,’ “he explained.
An American Customs and Border Protection spokesman was not able to say where the 12 migrants and eight others ended later in the day, if they were allowed to remain in the country or not.
“Unfortunately, we don’t track,” spokesman Thomas Greschbach told The Post in an email.
“Without knowing the specific cases, the migrants caught in the slash house will be processed – most likely under Title 8 – which cover a broad spectrum of immigration laws. Individuals may be subject to other agencies such as ICE for additional processing Will be handed over. Every case is different depending on the specifics of the individual. ”
Asked which public agency would know where the expatriates went, Graceback said that “no one would really know” because they were not processed as a group.
“The stations process the individuals and then transfer the custody to the appropriate agencies based on the history of the case … each of them could possibly be treated differently based on their history,” the spokesperson said. The spokesman said.
“The Border Patrol works closely with all federal agencies in processing migrants on a case by case basis.”
While there have been recent migrant increases on the southern border under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump in 2014 and 2019, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged on Tuesday that the latest mob is set to be the largest in decades.
“We are on pace to face more individuals on the southwest border in the last 20 years,” Mayurakas said in a statement.
In January, more than 78,000 migrants were encountered at the border and in February, the number rose by 28 percent to 100,441, the largest number since March 2019. US Customs and Border Protection data shows.
In fiscal year 2021, from October to February, the majority of encounters were single adults, accounting for 82.3 percent of the total. About 10 percent were family units and seven percent were unaccounted for.
A CBP official said, “For the past few weeks, it seems as if the switch has been switched off.”
“It is bad and if it continues at the same pace, it will be worse.”
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