Tucson (AZ), – The Border Patrol (CBP) on Tuesday reported the arrest of more than 600 immigrants on the New Mexico border, two large groups mostly comprised of Central American families and unaccompanied teenagers.
Border agents detected the first group inside Sunland Park, in the border town of Antelope Wells, New Mexico, just after midnight today, the federal agency reported in a press release.
In that group, CBP agents arrested 424 migrants.
While the officers finished processing the first group, border agents working in the base camp of Camp Bounds, also in New Mexico, arrested another group of 230 migrants in the same region after midnight.
This group was also comprised mostly of family units and unaccompanied minors.
The arrests demonstrate the continued flow of undocumented immigrants who cross the border to voluntarily surrender to US authorities and seek asylum.
“This is a continuing situation faced by Border Patrol agents, particularly in the far west of Texas and southern New Mexico,” the federal agency said in the same statement.
“Hundreds of parents and children are found by agents after having faced a dangerous journey in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers,” the text continues.
CBP indicated that criminal organizations continue to exploit innocent human lives to carry out their illicit activities without taking into account the risks of human life.
For their part, border communities such as Las Cruces, in New Mexico, continue to house migrant families who are being released daily by the Border Patrol.
The governor of the state, Michelle Luján Grisham, and the mayor of Albuquerque, Tim Keller, announced on Tuesday that the Expo New Mexico fairgrounds will serve as a temporary shelter for the thousands of migrants who arrive at the southern border of the country to request asylum.
Lujan Grisham and Keller indicated that the migrants will be taken to these facilities in the coming weeks, with the capacity to receive almost 12,000 people (EFEUSA).
