Mexican army and US border officers repel 1K migrants storming El Paso

Heavily-armed Mexican military and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were manning the El Paso border on Sunday evening after ‘at least a 1,000’ migrants unsuccessfully tried to rush a checkpoint. Video shared by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin showed the ‘bilateral show of force’ on the border, which included armed security forces in riot gear, barbed wire, concrete blocks and mesh fence on the Paso Del Norte Bridge. 

It was shared hours after different footage showed hordes of migrants charging past a line of Mexican officials at the border between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. Photos captured the moment the group reached the center of the bridge, where they were then blocked by CBP officers, tear gas and barricades. 

CBP officers said they ‘implemented port hardening measures’ including the use of the fencing and concrete barricades, temporarily preventing northbound traffic at the bridge. Officials say the large group approached the international line ‘posing a threat to make mass entry.’

Footage showed the group, which consisted of mostly of young men but also included women and young children, charging along the border road. The clips also shows them pushing past the Mexican side of Paso Del Norte bridge forcing CBP to erect barricades of barbed wire and other physical barriers to prevent any crossings.

According to one reporter on the ground, a portion of the group was able to be pushed by CBP officials while another group decided to gather around smaller bridges including the Stanton Bridge and the Bridge of the Americas, also leading to the use of barricades by CBP officials armed with batons and riot shields. Others attempted to get across the border into the U.S. by crossing the river.

‘This is the type of event that doesn’t help them (migrants),’ said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas to KTSM. ‘It doesn’t help the migrant make their case. I know that they’re tired of waiting and all that, but this type of thing just doesn’t help their case,’ Cuellar said. ‘Even the president is saying, now, “Let’s have ’em come in in an orderly process,” you know. What they’re doing, trying to rush through, doesn’t help their case one bit at all. It does become a little frustrating.’ 

CBP released a statement early on Sunday evening explaining what had occurred. ‘CBP officers including members of the CBP Mobile Field Force implemented port hardening measures at the Paso Del Norte international bridge at 1:30pm today temporarily preventing the northbound flow of traffic after a large group of individuals formed on the Mexican side of the border and approached the international boundary posing a potential threat to make a mass entry.’ The CBP response included the deployment of physical barriers to restrict entry. As of 5 pm there is no traffic processing occurring at Paso Del Norte. There were also temporary disruptions at two other crossings because of appearance of groups of migrants.

Barricades were used at the Stanton Bridge crossing from 2pm until 2:45pm and at the Bridge of the Americas from 2:45pm until 3:30pm. ‘The Office of Field Operations Special Response Team and U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assisting CBP officers.’ Sunday’s sudden surge comes after sharp drop in illegal border crossings since December. The decrease in border crossings followed Biden’s announcement in early January that Mexico would take back Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans under a pandemic-era rule that denies migrants the right to seek asylum as part of an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the same time, the U.S. agreed to admit up to 30,000 a month of those four nationalities on humanitarian parole if they apply online, enter at an airport and find a financial sponsor.

The administration has also proposed generally denying asylum to anyone who travels though another country on their way to the U.S. without seeking protection there – effectively all non-Mexicans who appear at the U.S. southern border. Agents detained migrants more than 2.5 million times at the southern border in 2022, including more than 250,000 in December, the highest on record.

According to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, Border Patrol agents stopped migrants about 130,000 times in February, similar to January. More than 100,000 migrants each month were being released in U.S. border cities late last year with notices to appear in immigration court or report to immigration authorities. Graph showing: Migrant encounters in January were at their lowest level since February 2021.

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