U.S.- MEXICO BORDER – The square in downtown Juarez, Mexico, the city center, is full of people, but many of these people are not from Mexico. They are from all over central America and even as far away as Africa and the Middle East.
These migrants remain in Mexico under the policy that was started under President Donald Trump. That policy is likely to be going away very soon, but so far these people are still stuck here on the Mexican side of the border.
Many of these migrants have been waiting here in Juarez for more than a year to have an asylum hearing in the United States. The fact that they were not being allowed to live in the U.S. while they wait for a decision on their cases has had a tremendous chilling effect on the number of migrants willing to make the journey.
But a new administration in Washington has given new hope to many who came here to find a better life. But after four years of strict immigration policy, getting into the United States isn’t near as easy as it used to be.
The “We Build The Wall” project, is the part of the border wall that was constructed with private funding right outside El Paso, Texas, and it has made a big difference in the number of migrants coming through this area. CBN News talked with one of the owners of this property about the effects that it’s had and especially about what’s happened since the Biden administration took office.
“Before the wall went up I was catching between 50 to 150 a day out here myself with my dog,” said El Paso landowner Jeff Allen. “Nobody ever got hurt. But since the wall went up, up until here recently, I was seeing a handful a week, that was it.”
However, after the inauguration, Allen said, “Numbers are picking up greatly again, now they are catching anywhere from 30 to 70 a night. And the ones that are coming over, they aren’t just giving up. They are aggressively resisting. They are physically resisting.”
While on the scene, this CBN News contributing reporter noticed several migrants trying to cross the border illegally.
A nearby mountainside is where many of the migrants are crossing now because it’s one of the few places near El Paso that doesn’t have a massive fence. Since the ‘We Build The Wall’ project went up here, it made it a lot more difficult for these migrants to just cross right through what used to be called the tortilla curtain.
Now, they go up this mountain, cross over the ridge and come down this footpath I’m standing on right now. You can tell that they’ve been here because there are lots of trash like water bottles. I see some shoelaces here too.
From here they go right down into a washout and right into El Paso. And there are Border Patrol agents spread out around here. But as you can imagine, in the dark, it’s pretty hard to catch them.
We observed one group of about six migrants crossing up on the Mexican side of the border. A few moments later, on the backside of the mountain, a group of six Honduran and Cuban men was apprehended trying to cross into the United States.
But there’s a twist. They were not arrested by U.S. agents, rather the Mexican army detained them before they could cross. A Mexican immigration officer explained their country is still abiding by the agreements made with the Trump administration, and Border Patrol told us they are thankful Mexico is staying true to its word to help reduce illegal migration.
Now, with a Biden administration committed to reversing the policies of his predecessor as soon as possible, it’s likely many more migrants will be crossing this barrier very soon.
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