BP nabs nearly 200 migrants in 33-hour period

Agents: Crossers hail from 7 countries, most from Guatemala

The U.S. Border Patrol says agents from its Yuma Sector arrested 188 migrants from seven countries over a 33-hour period earlier this week.

According to agent Jose Garibay III of the Yuma Sector Public Affairs Office, from noon Tuesday until 9 a.m. Wednesday, agents apprehended 23 groups of migrants.

While 155 of the migrants were traveling as families, Garibay said agents also identified 18 minors as unaccompanied children traveling without adult relatives.

The vast majority of the migrants — 149 — were from Guatemala, with the largest single group apprehended consisting of 45 individuals, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at approximately 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning on the east side of the city of San Luis.

“We have seen these types of trends before, where large groups do come over in very short time spans,” Garibay said.

Of the remaining migrants apprehended, nine were from Mexico, 20 were Honduran nationals, five were from El Salvador, two were Nicaraguan, one was from India, one was from Italy, and the last one was Romanian.

While the apprehensions took place throughout the Yuma Sector, Garibay said nearly half of the migrants — 75 — all crossed at the exact same location east of the city of San Luis.

Garibay also stated that agents in the Yuma Sector have seen a steady increase in the number of migrants surrendering to agents patrolling along the border.

He explained that the transnational criminal organizations involved in human smuggling typically send the migrants — who

have paid for their passage — across the border in places patrolled by Border Patrol agents, knowing they are going to get caught.

“It goes to show these human smuggling organizations use the same tactics,” Garibay said. “Their business is numbers and the more people they send across, the more money they make.”

In the past, most of the migrants have been from

Mexico, but that isn’t the case anymore, according to Garibay. These days most non-Mexican migrants hail from Guatemala.

Garibay added that in some instances, when a group of Guatemalans has been apprehended, most of the individuals have been from the same general region of that country.

Agents are processing the individuals for immigration violations, in accordance with Yuma Sector guidelines.