The welded-open floodgates at the US-Mexico border have finally been closed — but the nightmare for border agents continues, as migrants now make their way to the nearest legal port of entry.
As The Post exclusively reported, the cartel has been exploiting 114 open storm gates near Lukeville, Arizona for at least two months – daringly unloading vanloads of migrants on the Mexican side and guiding them into America – making the Tucson sector the busiest in the US for crossings illegal immigrants.
Now, they simply turn themselves in to legally process and claim asylum, which continues to overwhelm the Tucson Border Patrol sector.
“I think we see more than 2,200 migrants a day; it has to be more than that,” a border agent working in the area told The Post.
That estimate is a big jump from the 1,300 migrants a day the Border Patrol said crossed the Tucson sector in July.
A giant gate in the border wall near Lukeville, Arizona — measuring several feet wide and 12 feet high — was quietly closed last week, sources confirmed to The Post.
The gates were closed earlier — as the Border Patrol previously told The Post that the gates are open starting in June even as late as September for the Grand Canyon State’s annual monsoon season.
The monsoon floodgates begin to open in July, making the Lukeville area a hotspot for human trafficking. James Breeden/Shutterstock for the NY Post
Although the gates have been opened in previous years and under previous administrations, they have never been used so boldly by smugglers to bring thousands of immigrants into the US. The Tuscon sector recorded 42,561 encounters with illegal and legal border crossings in July alone.
The Border Patrol makes decisions about when and to open and close gates, the agency previously confirmed.
“In my opinion and in the opinion of Border Patrol agents, those doors should not be open,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said in August.
The Post first reported about the open doors on August 20, which they have been open for up to two months. Despite the obvious state of emergency when migrants were recorded flooding, they were not sealed for another two weeks.
Migrants are thrown from Mexico’s border wall by smugglers who order them to flee to the USJames Breeden/Shutterstock for the NY Post
Agents on the ground believe the sticking point is how it took nearly all of the Border Patrol’s resources in Tucson to deal with the influx of immigrants.
After migrants walk through the gates, many find border agents and turn themselves in, hoping to be allowed to stay in the US while they seek asylum.
“We thought the agents would tell us something,” said one Ecuadorian immigrant The Post met with in August. “But we just got in.”
The border crossing is then sent to the nearest Border Patrol station in the small town of Ajo for processing. That includes fingerprinting, running a background check and having all their information logged.
Agents were brought in from Texas to help the understaffed Ajo station process immigrants.
An estimated 1,300 illegal border crossings per day were documented by the Border Patrol in July. The figures are expected to be higher for August and September, which have not yet been made public. James Breeden/Shutterstock for the NY Post
But additional help is not enough.
At least two buses a day, about 140 migrants, have to be driven to Tucson, a two-hour drive, just to be processed.
Agents assigned to other parts of the Tucson sector, which includes all states except Yuma, are being pulled into Tucson to help deal with the seemingly endless wave of immigrants.
When the floodgates opened for the first time, confused Border Patrol agents told The Post they didn’t see a reason for it because they knew the monsoon season would start later this year in mid-July, not June.
The gate was welded open by the department after Border Patrol agents tried to close it. James Breeden/Shutterstock for the NY Post
The Post witnessed two Chinese nationals riding a motorcycle through the gate.
Frustrated agents even closed the door several times to prevent migrants from leaving.
“We tried to close the gate but the order came out that we had to leave it open,” said one source. “You wouldn’t leave your front door open in a bad neighborhood.”
Later, the agents watch in horror as the superiors in the department decide to weld the gate open to prevent the agents from closing it.
114 monsoon gates are located along 36 miles of remote Arizona desert. James Breeden/Shutterstock for the NY Post
Tucson jumped from more than 27,000 border encounters in June to more than 42,000 in July, surpassing the traditionally busier border posts of El Paso and Laredo in Texas.
Figures for August and September are expected to soar, agents believe, with one saying: “We’re not bothering them. We basically advertise ‘this is how you get in.’ “
The Border Patrol said in a statement: “The fence in the Tucson Sector was constructed at various times between 2009-2021, and throughout the infrastructure’s history, during monsoons and in anticipation of heavy rains or potential flooding events, CBP has opened stormwater gates to ensure drainage which is correct and minimizes the potential impact on infrastructure.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
