“This is not mom and dad and kids deciding to head to the border.”
Shocking footage captured by U.S. Border Patrol surveillance cameras appears to show men armed with machine guns escorting a migrant family across the U.S.-Mexico border.
In a video obtained by Fox News this week, four or five men are seen walking alongside a Guatemalan woman and her child. According to Fox News, the men are wearing tactical gear and holding long-guns and AK-47s.
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Border patrol agents responded after camera operators noticed the crossing on Sunday night. The woman turned herself in to immigration authorities. She and her child remain in custody.
The smugglers turned back at the border.
“This is highly unusual and highly concerning to the agency,” a border official told Fox News. “These armed individuals along the border represent an escalation of tactics. This is not mom and dad and kids deciding to head to the border. This is a no kidding, orchestrated effort to bring individuals to the U.S. It is not just the numbers. It’s who is running this enterprise.”
Criminal organizations, who charge thousands of dollars for their smuggling services, are facilitating the influx of migrants to the border, officials told Fox News.
Immigration authorities have characterized the Congressional response to the situation at the border as indifference.
Many Democrats and liberals have been vocal in pushing back against President Donald Trump’s calls for urgent action on the “border crisis.”
After Trump declared a “national emergency” at the border in February, many on the left expressed outrage and accused the president of pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Some have denied the existence of an immigration crisis.
Also in February, four congressional Democrats said there is no crisis at the border after touring San Ysidro’s port of entry in California.
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