If you don’t believe that the United States is under siege at our southern border with Mexico, images of a bloodied Border Patrol agent, fresh from an alleged brawl with an uncooperative migrant, may change your mind.
And if that doesn’t do it, a video from Central Mexico showing more than 5,000 migrants clamoring to find a spot on a freight train bound for the United States is sure to do the trick.
Former U.S. Representative Maya Flores (R-Texas) shared on social media the disturbing photos of a blood-drenched Border Agent and called for prayers.
“This is the type of violence that is being exerted on Border Patrol Agents by those who don’t want to be apprehended,” she wrote on X. “The suspect was encountered by Border Patrol near McAllen, Texas, and was labeled a rat by the cartels. Please pray for our men and women in uniform.”
This is the type of violence that is being exerted on Border Patrol Agents by those who don’t want to be apprehended. The suspect was encountered by Border Patrol near McAllen, Texas, and was labeled a rat by the cartels. Please pray for our men and women in uniform pic.twitter.com/4ns0ZvbhUf
— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores_TX) September 24, 2023
Meanwhile, an Associated Press (AP) video of a non-passenger freight train — dubbed along with other such freight trains as “The Beast” — shows the reality of what is headed America’s way.
Taken outside the city of Irapuato, roughly 5,000 mostly Venezuelan men, women, and children can be seen camping in the area, having waited three days for their chance to board The Beast,” AP reports.
“Thousands of other migrants were stranded in other parts of the country last week after Mexico’s biggest railroad said it halted 60 freight trains. The company, Ferromex, said so many migrants were hitching rides on the trains that it became unsafe to move the trains,” according to AP. “The company said it had seen a ‘half dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths’ in a span of just days.”
(Video: YouTube)
While local police were stationed around the migrant camp, AP notes that “there was no attempt to stop migrants from climbing aboard” when the train made a half-hour stop at the station.
Despite the obvious danger, many of the migrants passed their bundled babies and baggage up to other asylum-seekers and climbed on top of the train’s cars, risking not only falling off but violence from drug cartels.
When Ferromex temporarily halted the trains, it “temporarily cut off one of the most transited migratory routes in the country at a time of surging migration,” according to AP.
“The halting of the train routes also underscores the historic numbers of people heading north in search of a new life in the United States, and the dilemma it poses for countries across the Americas as they struggle to cope with the sheer quantities of migrants traversing their territories,” the outlet continues. “When several thousand migrants crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, over a few days the border town declared an emergency.”
The latest data, released on Friday, reveals that, in August, “the U.S. Border Patrol made 181,509 arrests at the Mexican border, up 37% from July but little changed from August 2022 and well below the high of more than 220,000 in December.”
“It reversed a plunge in the numbers after new asylum restrictions were introduced in May,” according to AP. “That comes after years of steadily rising migration levels produced by economic crisis and political and social turmoil in many of the countries people are fleeing.”
“Meanwhile, the Biden administration has pushed Mexico and Central American nations to control migratory flows and now requires asylum seekers to register through an app known as CBP One,” AP reports. “On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it would grant temporary protected status to nearly a half million more Venezuelans already in the country.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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