BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Border Report) — About 100 migrants were captured on video Wednesday as they tried to cross into the U.S. illegally through a gap in the concertina wire along the Rio Grande in Brownsville, Texas.
Video taken from the Mexican side of the river and sent to Border Report by Pastor Jim Howard of West Side Baptist Church, shows groups of migrants, including many children, trying to pass through the dangerous wire in an area between an old golf course and the Gateway International Bridge.
They crossed the chilly Rio Grande and many waited for over an hour as Texas National Guard soldiers blocked access to the levee on the U.S. side, Howard said.
Construction crews worked to re-install spools of concertina wire, which were installed as part of Operation Lone Star, Texas’ border security initiative.
Heavy earth-moving equipment could be heard moving soil to shore up the levee as more and more migrants congregated in the water trying to enter the United States and seek asylum.
“The water was pretty cool and to stand still it will be cold,” Howard told Border Report. He and another parishioner, Joe McCoart, watched alongside several Mexican media.
U.S. media are not allowed on the levee.
“Precious people getting caught up in the money-making scheme and political posturing,” Howard said.
Howard has been on the border this week from his hometown in Atlanta, Texas, delivering food and blankets and other items to the 1,000 migrants living in tents in a former hospital complex about 10 miles south of the U.S. border.
On Wednesday, he went to the riverbank after hearing there had been a section of concertina wire that had been cut.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told Border Report that the federal government does not put concertina wire on the riverbank.
Border Report reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is an agency that implements Operation Lone Star, but they referred questions to the Texas Military Department, which oversees the Texas National Guard.
The Texas Military Department did not respond to questions. This story will be updated if information is received.
CBP officials would not release data on migrant crossings in the area, for security reasons, but a spokesman did say that the numbers have dropped significantly since May when this area was the epicenter for asylum-seekers who were turning themselves in upwards of 10,000 per day prior to the lifting of Title 42.
The area they are processed in is called Camp Monument and is still used by Border Patrol agents to process migrants under Title 8, which resumed after the end of Title 42, and dictates expulsions and exemptions.
Lately, migrant crossings have been up significantly in Lukeville, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas, but these border watchers say Wednesday’s incident could signal that Brownsville could once again see more traffic.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at BorderReport.com.
