More than 200 migrants detained by Border Patrol i
Post# of 65629
A group of more than 200 Central American migrants surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol agents Wednesday in a remote part of New Mexico, officials said.
The group of 247 men, women and children was the latest in a spike in large migrant groups arriving at the desolate desert border in Antelope Wells, officials said.
The migrants crossed the border shortly after midnight and surrendered to agents at the tiny Antelope Wells port of entry, the Border Patrol said in a news release.
Antelope Wells is the same location where a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, crossed the border with her father and was detained by Border Patrol before the girl died on Dec. 8 at an El Paso hospital.
An autopsy reporting the formal cause of death for Jakelin is pending.
More than 200 migrants surrendered to the U.S. Border Patrol
The Antelope Wells Port of entry stands on the U.S.-Mexico border in southern New Mexico's Bootheel in May 2017.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have said they need additional resources to deal with the influx of migrants in the Bootheel of New Mexico.
During a Dec. 18 tour with members of Congress, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that smugglers found a "seam" that they are exploiting on the New Mexico border.
Migrants have told agents that smugglers arrange buses to take groups from Guatemala to New Mexico, arriving at the U.S. border within four or five days, McAleenan said.
At the border, migrants cross a barbed-wire fence and surrender to Border Patrol agents in a bid for asylum, McAleenan said.
At the U.S.-Mexico border, an item of discarded clothing lies in a field near the Antelope Wells, N.M., border station.
The Antelope Wells station typically only had four border agents on duty at any time because only about 30 vehicles cross the border there each day, McAleenan said.
This is the border marker just west of the border station at Antelope Wells, NM.
Additional agents have been deployed to the Antelope Wells region, CBP said.
Antelope Wells in New Mexico is about 30 miles east of the Arizona border.
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigr...598862002/
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigr...598862002/