EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Mexican authorities on Monday surged police officers, immigration agents and National Guard troops to the Rio Grande in Juarez, Mexico.
Authorities told a KTSM/Border Report camera crew their instructions were to offer transportation to shelters in Juarez to those foreign nationals who do not have immediate appointments for asylum with U.S. authorities in El Paso.
Hundreds of public servants in work uniforms, including soldiers carrying AR-15 style rifles and a Mexican National Migration Institute canine unit, gathered Monday morning by the Big Red X monument near the Rio Grande.
Members of a canine unit from the Mexican National Migration Institute prepare to deploy to the Rio Grande in Juarez, Mexico, on April 1, 2024.
The officers and soldiers then deployed to the banks or the river, with several seen heading to the portion of the river near Gate 36 of the U.S. border wall. Thousands of migrants have used that maintenance portal to turn themselves over to the U.S. Border Patrol and request asylum once they have come across the river illegally.
The gate also was the site of what Texas authorities are calling a riot March 21, in which a large group of migrants forcibly overwhelmed Texas National Guard troops.
Texas has placed barbwire on the banks of the river, several yards in front of the U.S. border wall to discourage migrants from coming over illegally.
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