CRISIS: 376 Central American Migrants Tunnel Under Border and Request Asylum
Richard Moorhead
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A massive group of illegal migrants infiltrated the United States’ southern border with Mexico, by tunneling under barriers and surfacing on the American side of the border.
Officials stated that the group surfaced near openings to a total of seven separate tunnels, at a relatively remote section of the border nearby Yuma, Arizona.
It’s said that the size of the group- a whopping 376 migrants– could be one of the largest groups ever apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol. After reaching the United States, the group presented themselves to Border Patrol Agents, requesting asylum. It’s likely now that they’ll be subject to a lengthy legal process, in which immigration courts will evaluate the credibility of their claim of asylum. Many migrants will never show up for their court hearings.
According to CBP, at least 200 of the group are minors, with many of the adults claiming to be their parents or relatives. Requesting asylum as a minor or as a family member of a migrant minor dramatically increases one’s chance of receiving legal residence of the United States, despite entering the United States illegally or declining asylum in an adjacent safe country, such as Mexico.
According to the Yuma Border Patrol Sector Chief, Anthony Porvaznik, migrants claiming(often under doubtful prospects) to be family units will serve as a means to evade detention in immigration enforcement facilities. He was quoted telling ABC News that “the only reason they’re trying to say that they’re family units is that they know if they’re a family unit, they’re going to be released within 20 days.” He went on to state that he had never encountered a migrant group as big as this one in his 30+ year long career with the federal agency.
Open borders and anti-wall advocates will claim a tunneling strategy employed by illegal migrants negates the purpose and intention of a border wall, but it’s a strawman argument to suggest that immigration patriots decline to offer policy solutions to deal with the phenomenon– which has been used for drug smuggling before. Through utilizing underground sensors, cracking down on fake asylum claims, and cooperating with Mexican law enforcement, it’s possible to deter foreign nationals from digging tunnels into the United States.
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