BP catches 275 illegal entrants in 48 hours

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested 275 undocumented entrants in a 48-period earlier this week, most of whom surrendered to agents after illegally crossing into the country from Mexico.

Agent Justin Kallinger of the Yuma Sector Public Affairs Office said that the apprehensions happened on Monday and Tuesday, with 262 of those individuals coming from countries other than Mexico.

While 209 of the illegal entrants were traveling as

families, Kallinger said agents also identified 26 minors as unaccompanied children who were traveling without adult relatives.

The vast majority of the migrants — 215 — were from Guatemala. Others were from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, China, India and Romania. Most of the arrests also happened near the City of San Luis.

“This daily crisis is taking manpower and resources from our border security mission and compelling us to redistribute them to a humanitarian mission,” Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Porvaznik said.

Twenty of the individuals had to be transported to the hospital to be treated for a range of conditions including back and ankle injuries from being dropped off the border wall, lacerations, lice infestation and impetigo, which is a highly contagious skin infection that mainly affects infants and children.

Kallinger added that agents are seeing more of these large group giveups, adding that it is a new trend in the way human smuggling organizations are operating.

“These groups weren’t as large as they have been in the past. We just had a steady flow of people,” Kalinger said.

All of the illegal entrants were taken back to the Yuma Station where they were processed for immigration violations, in accordance with Yuma Sector guidelines.

Earlier this month Yuma Sector agents arrested 188 migrants from seven countries over a 33-hour period, with the largest single group apprehended consisting of 45 individuals.