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Migrant smugglers were seen boasting how easy it is to illegally cross the border into America in a confronting clip showing a long line of men entering the U.S. smiling and waving at the camera.
The alarming footage, filmed on May 27 near Lukeville, Arizona, reveals a long line of migrant men casually climbing through a gap in the US-Mexico border wall and meeting no resistance or questioning.
A caption in Spanish accompanying the video reads: ‘Achieving their goals, the gents’ followed by two prayer emojis. Text overlaid on the video also describes the crossing as a ‘desert adventure.’
The remote outpost where the video was taken is around two and a half hours from Tucson, which has become the busiest point of illegal entry into the country, with 1,300 people a day crossing into the US in this area, according to federal statistics.
It comes as a federal judge is set to rule on whether poverty would classify admission to the US on humanitarian grounds in a lawsuit filed by Texas and 20 other Republican leaning states against the Biden administration.
A video of migrant smugglers boasting of how easy it is to cross the US Mexico border has garnered attention on social media
Migrants wade through the Rio Grande river past buoys and razor wire in search of an entry point into the United States from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas July 29, 2023
The alarming footage, taken on May 27 near Lukeville, Arizona, reveals a long line of migrant men casually climbing through a gap in the US-Mexico border
Border Patrol agents told the New York Post they believe smugglers make these videos to promote the crossings to others.
It is ‘free information for everybody,’ an unnamed agent told the Post.
Migrants reportedly pay smugglers anywhere between $200 and $6,000 per person for assistance crossing the border.
The issue of illegal migration at the border has become a hot political issue in recent months.
Texas is currently challenging the Biden administration’s program of allowing 30,000 people into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined on humanitarian grounds.
The opposing states have accused the policy of being a ‘shadow immigration system’ that’s letting in nearly everyone who applies.
U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton said that a ‘massive chunk of the world’ lives in poverty, adding he’s visited Haiti and seen terrible living conditions there firsthand.
‘Does the fact they are living in poverty qualify as an urgent humanitarian need?’ Tipton asked as closing arguments were being presented in the trial in Victoria, Texas.
A bus carrying migrants from Texas is seen arriving at a church in Los Angeles
Border Patrol agents escort migrants onto a bus to be taken to a processing facility to begin their asylum-seeking process in Eagle Pass, Texas
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A second group of migrants was bused from Texas to Los Angeles on Saturday and dropped off at downtown’s Union Station
‘I think probably not,’ said Elissa Fudim, a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department, which is defending the federal government in the lawsuit.
Attorneys for Texas and the other states say the large numbers of migrants being paroled in the U.S. show officials are granting parole en masse and not on a case-by-case basis as required by law.
But lawyers with the U.S. Justice Department and the immigrant rights groups argued migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not simply fleeing economic hardship but also oppressive regimes, escalating violence and worsening political conditions that have endangered their lives.
The governors of red states, such as Florida and Texas, have taken to bussing migrants to blue states such California and New York.
Texas has bussed more than 21,600 migrants out of state since last spring, Governor Greg Abbott’s office said.
Abbott said he was sending migrants to Los Angeles because California had declared itself a ‘sanctuary’ for immigrants, extending protections to people living in the country illegally.
Abbott said in June ‘Texas’ small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden’s refusal to secure the border.’
‘Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status.
The issue of illegal migration at the border has become a hot political issue in recent months
Texas has bussed more than 21,600 migrants out of state since last spring , Governor Greg Abbott’s office said
‘Our border communities are on the frontlines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border.’
Texas has bused more than 10,000 migrants to Washington D.C. since April 2022, over 8,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022, more than 2,600 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, more than 1,600 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, over 210 migrants to Denver since May 2023, and over 80 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14.
Earlier in June, the state of Florida picked up three dozen migrants in Texas and sent them by private jet to California’s state capital, catching shelters and aid workers in Sacramento by surprise.
Earlier this year, DeSantis sent two planes filled with migrants to ritzy Martha’s Vineyard island, off the coast of Massachusetts.
The migrant crossings come after Title 42 ended in May – causing an influx of people moving into the US over the border.
The Title 42 rules had been in place since March 2020.
The restrictions allowed border officials to quickly return asylum seekers back over the border on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
U.S. authorities have unveiled strict new measures to replace Title 42, which crack down on illegal crossings while also setting up legal pathways for migrants who apply online, seek a sponsor and undergo background checks.
