April 12, 2024: Migrants are apprehended near the border in New Mexico. (Fox News)
There, they will be subject to Title 8 removal proceedings, which could include a quick return to their country of origin via expedited removal, or it could mean entry into the United States as they await their immigration removal proceedings and a court hearing.
In another section near the port of entry, agents nabbed a group of migrants from Ecuador, Bolivia and Guatemala who had cut a hole in the border fence, but had been stopped by agents just feet from the hole. The fencing is, in some areas, reinforced by bollards, which in turn are sometimes filled with concrete in an effort to make cutting them harder. The group included two small children.
Agents have also found makeshift ladders and rope discarded near parts of the wall that are harder to cut through.
SPIKE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THIS US ADVERSARY BLOWS LID OFF PREVIOUS YEAR'S RECORD
It’s an area where smugglers have operated for years and they are notoriously vicious. They will leave migrants behind if they get injured, or send them across, knowing that they are in danger to the elements. This was the area where, in 2021, smugglers heartlessly abandoned a five-year-old and three-year-old girl, dropping them over the fence before they were rescued by agents.
Border Patrol Agent Claudio Herrera told Fox News Digital that there were nearly 600 rescues of distressed migrants in FY 23, and so far in FY 24 there have been more than 320.
Migrant scout oversees the border area near Mexico in this April 12, 2024, photo. (Fox News)
Agents with whom Fox was embedded spotted a helicopter from CBP’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO) flying low over the mountain's border with Mexico, and followed up the ominous mountain, where cartel scouts were situated just on the Mexican side. A group of adult male migrants whom they were overseeing, but who had not yet reached the U.S., quickly turned back upon seeing the agents.
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But the scouts remained just feet from the border, gesturing vulgarly at the agents and filming them and Fox’s reporter. The Border Patrol vehicle headed up the mountain and later returned, at which point the scouts had inched across into the U.S. side, but fled back over to the Mexican side when they saw the vehicle.
For the agents though, they don’t need to spend much time up in the mountains. With the extra levels of surveillance, including the autonomous surveillance towers that use AI to track and identify migrants, agents can track any migrants clambering across the mountain and wait for them at the bottom when they come down and have tired themselves out.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.
He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.
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