EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Illegal immigration kept falling in August across the southern border – except in a place where the desert is killing dozens of human beings, border agents are being assaulted and cartels “100 percent” guarantee they will cross you into the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data published last week shows migrant encounters went up 22 percent in New Mexico, going from 9,087 in July to 11,016 in August.
The portion of the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol that runs from Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico to the Arizona state line accounted for all but 2,266 of the region’s apprehensions last month. By far, most of the migrants apprehended in August were Mexican nationals, with Guatemalan migrants a distant second, followed by Venezuelan migrants.
Federal officials say encounters in New Mexico typically do not involve asylum-seekers but rather migrants who are actively trying to avoid apprehension. Last week, a border agent trying to apprehend a group of migrants seen coming from Mexico over Mount Cristo Rey got bitten in the face and required medical care.
And on Monday, Border Report witnessed New Mexico State Police and Border Patrol units surround a vehicle along McNutt Road in Sunland Park. A CBP helicoptered hovered over the scene as traffic was shut down to one lane going east.
On Sept. 13, a smuggling attempt that originated in New Mexico resulted in a Texas Department of Public Safety chase that ended on Interstate 10 and resulted in the capture of Alfonso Guzman Intzin, a Mexican national wanted on homicide charges and failure to appear in court in Lansing, Michigan.
Earlier this summer, Homeland Security Investigations and the Chihuahua state police reported the rescue of two migrants in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, who had been beaten and burned by smugglers across the border in Juarez so they would pay a ransom. The migrants reported to U.S. authorities that others at the place they had been kept in Mexico also were being tortured and the women raped.
U.S. officials attributed that incident to a transnational criminal organization called La Empresa. Other alleged associates of La Empresa are being prosecuted in U.S. federal district court in connection with migrant stash houses found in Sunland Park.
In July, Border Report found various social media accounts in which Mexican smugglers “100 percent” guaranteed foreign nationals illegal entry into the United States. The smugglers posted testimonies of “satisfied” customers purportedly interviewed in El Paso safe houses.
The smugglers posted videos of associates wielding ladders atop the border wall and then walking along the sand and rock behind Mount Cristo Rey.
Border Report has since learned U.S. authorities are investigating those postings.
The desert west of Sunland Park and Santa Teresa also has claimed dozens of lives this summer — 171 at last count. This prompted CBP to deploy a surveillance aerostat in Santa Teresa capable of spotting migrants in the desert from several miles away.
A volunteer search and rescue group on Monday took Border Report on a tour of the desert near Santa Teresa where they have found 20 sites with human remains that local authorities have not picked up in almost a year.
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