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Migrant smugglers have been seen touting how easy it is to illegally cross the US border in a clip showing a long line of men entering the US, smiling and waving at the camera.
The alarming footage, filmed on May 27 near Lukeville, Arizona, shows a long line of male migrants carelessly climbing a gap in the border wall between the United States and Mexico and meeting no resistance or questioning.
A caption in Spanish accompanying the video reads: “Reach their goals, gentlemen,” followed by two prayer emojis. Text overlaid on the video also describes the crossing as a “desert adventure.”
The remote outpost where the video was shot is about two and a half hours from Tucson, which has become the busiest illegal entry point into the country, with 1,300 people a day crossing the border into the United States in this zone, according to federal statistics.
It comes as a federal judge prepares to rule on whether poverty would qualify admission to the United States on humanitarian grounds in a lawsuit brought by Texas and 20 others Republican-leaning states against the Biden administration.
A video of migrant smugglers bragging about how easy it is to cross the US-Mexico border has drawn attention on social media.
Migrants cross the Rio Grande River past buoys and barbed wire in search of a point of entry into the United States from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas, July 29, 2023.
The alarming footage, taken on May 27 near Lukeville, Arizona, shows a long line of male migrants carelessly climbing a gap in the US-Mexico border.
Border Patrol Agents told the New York Post they believe that the smugglers make these videos to promote the crossings to other people.
This is “free information for everyone,” an anonymous agent told the Post.
Migrants reportedly pay smugglers between $200 and $6,000 per person to help them cross the border.
The issue of illegal immigration at the border has become a hot political topic in recent months.
Texas is currently challenging the Biden administration’s program to allow 30,000 people into the United States each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined for humanitarian reasons.
Opposing states have accused the policy of being a “shadow immigration system” that lets in almost anyone who applies.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton said ‘much of the planet’ lives in poverty, adding that he has been to Haiti and seen with his own eyes terrible living conditions there .
“Does the fact that they live in poverty constitute an urgent humanitarian need? asked Tipton as closing arguments were presented at the trial in Victoria, Texas.
A bus carrying migrants from Texas arrives at a church in Los Angeles
Border Patrol agents escort migrants onto a bus to take them to a processing center to begin their asylum process in Eagle Pass, Texas.
A second group of migrants was bussed from Texas to Los Angeles on Saturday and dropped off at downtown Union Station.
“I probably don’t think so,” said Elissa Fudim, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, who is defending the federal government in the lawsuit.
Lawyers from Texas and other states say the large number of migrants on parole in the United States shows that authorities are granting parole en masse and not on a case-by-case basis as required by law.
But lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice and immigrant rights groups have argued that migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not only fleeing economic hardship, but also oppressive regimes, l escalation of violence and worsening political conditions that put their lives at risk.
Governors of red states, like Florida and Texas, have taken to busing migrants to blue states like California and New York.
Texas has bused more than 21,600 migrants out of state since last spring, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said.
Abbott said he was sending migrants to Los Angeles because California had declared itself a “sanctuary” for immigrants, extending protections to people living in the country illegally.
Abbott said in June that “small border towns in Texas remain overwhelmed and overrun with the thousands of people crossing illegally into Texas from Mexico due to President Biden’s refusal to secure the border.”
“Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to travel to, especially now that its leaders have endorsed its status as a self-proclaimed sanctuary city.
The issue of illegal immigration at the border has become a hot political topic in recent months
Texas has bused more than 21,600 migrants out of state since last spring, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said.
“Our border communities are on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue to provide this much-needed assistance until it acts to do its job and secure the border.”
Texas has bused over 10,000 migrants to Washington DC since April 2022, over 8,200 migrants to New York since August 2022, over 2,600 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, over 1,600 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, more than 210 migrants to Denver. since May 2023, and more than 80 migrants in Los Angeles since June 14.
Earlier in June, the state of Florida picked up three dozen migrants from Texas and sent them by private jet to the California state capital, catching shelters and aid workers in Sacramento by surprise.
Earlier this year, DeSantis sent two planes full of migrants to the posh island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
The migrant crossings come after Title 42 ended in May, prompting an influx of people entering the United States through the border.
Title 42 rules had been in place since March 2020.
The restrictions allowed border officials to quickly turn asylum seekers back across the border in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
US authorities have unveiled tough new measures to replace Title 42, which crack down on illegal crossings while establishing legal avenues for migrants to apply online, find a sponsor and undergo background checks.