Border Patrol agents are apprehending an increasing number of migrant groups that include more than 100 people on the northern side of the U.S.-Mexico border, and recorded two more incidents this week.
The total number of people found in large caravans wandering through southern Arizona in recent weeks now stands at 1,200, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Agents based at Ajo Station in south-central Arizona found a group of 164 people and another that included about 100 people in the desert just north of Mexican city Sonoyta Tuesday afternoon, a press release issued Thursday stated.
Every person in the group was taken in by federal law enforcement agents and determined to be from three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The caravan members were between the ages of 11 months and 59 years.
Human smugglers flooded a portion of the Texas-Mexico border with 170 Central American families and children last week in an attempt to overwhelm U.S. Border Patrol and get adults who wanted to avoid getting arrested into the country while agents were busy elsewhere, CBP said in a statement.
[ Also read: ICE: 3 in 10 illegal immigrant family units cut off ankle bracelets after being released from custody ]
Officials say the use of these 100- and 200-person groups has become the newest way smugglers are illegally moving people into the country.A Border Patrol official based on the southwest border who asked to remain anonymous told the Washington Examiner last week the recent caravan trend is […]
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