108 Central Americans surrender to BP here
Large numbers of Central American nationals continue to surrender to Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents. The illegal entry of one group, totaling 108 individuals, was caught on video early Thursday morning.
At around 3:30 a.m., camera operators observed a large number of illegal entrants being dropped from the 18-foot tall border wall east of the San Luis Port of Entry.
That group, according to information provided by the Yuma Sector Public Affairs Office, was part of a coordinated smuggling effort where the individuals were being dropped from the wall in four places simultaneously.
“Coordinated smuggling of large numbers of Central Americans is taking place daily here in Yuma Sector,” said Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Por- vaznik. “They show flagrant disregard for the laws of our country and are exploiting our need for improved border wall infrastructure.”
The human smugglers who orchestrated the breach never crossed with the groups and instead returned to Mexico.
Of the 108 individuals, 100 were from Guatemala and the rest were Honduran nationals. Within the group there were nine infants ranging in age from 1 to 5 years old, and 43 other children.
Agents caught an additional 112 undocumented immigrants throughout the rest of the day to bring the total number of apprehensions to 220, with a majority of them being Guatemalan nationals traveling in families.
All of the individuals were processed for immigration violations.
Apprehensions of individuals from countries other than Mexico is up more than 200 percent this fiscal year in the Yuma Sector, compared with the year-todate numbers in fiscal year 2018.