The steady flow of illegal immigrants strolling into the United States from Mexico continues unabated, with large groups including migrants with recent gastric bypass surgery, pregnant women a week away from their due date, and scores of very young children sent on treacherous journey alone.
KGBT’s Sydney Hernandez offered several updates on the immigration situation in the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday as numerous groups of 50 to 200 migrants marched into the country throughout the day and into the early morning Thursday.
#BORDERNEWS Groups continue to turn themselves into Border Patrol agents at Texas Mexico Border near Sullivan City. More updates to follow. #Immigration #BorderReport #bordercrisis pic.twitter.com/PWQYwgscvr
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
Hernandez reported on a group of dozens migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua apprehended by Border Patrol agents near Sullivan City around 6 p.m., followed by on-the-ground updates from areas near Hidalgo and Mission.
“This is just every day,” Hernandez said in one video posted to Twitter. “This is exactly what’s happening out here.”
Video from Sullivan City shows dozens of migrants huddled under a tree in the hot 6 p.m. sun as agents assessed their health and offered water as buses prepared to transport the group for processing.
#BORDERNEWS 9:30 PM Update. Another group has crossed up from the Rio Grande. This time near Rincon, just about a mile or two from homes. #Immigration #Texas pic.twitter.com/3REZuSyDhd
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
A little after 9 p.m., Hernandez highlighted a different group of about 40 people who crossed the Rio Grande River about a mile from a residential area near Rincon, where they were quickly apprehended and bused to a processing center.
“Agents and officers were already out here waiting for them. They do know this is a super common path to where these immigrants cross up from. They did give them water and they’re just collecting their belongings and they will go to a processing center,” Hernandez said.
“We had three small children who were traveling alone, so unaccompanied minors,” she said. “Two of them said their family was already in the United States, in New York and New Jersey, and the other one said he was just sent by himself.”
About an hour later, another large group with two pregnant women and several from India crossed near Hidalgo.
#BORDERNEWS 10:05 Update. Hidalgo, Texas. New group located. 3 from India. 2 Pregnant woman in this group. #Immigration #Texas pic.twitter.com/bzstZFKkFb
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
“This one is a little bit smaller, just about 30, but what makes this group a little bit different is that there were three immigrants from India inside of this group,” Hernandez said. “I tried to speak to them on Google translate just a little bit and they did say they decided to cross … because they saw other people crossing, as well. … The rest of the people are from Central America.”
“In this group we do have two pregnant women …, one is eight months and one is four months, so they do have medical staff who is going to attend to them,” she said, pointing out that agents were alerted to the group by a Border Patrol helicopter and greeted them at a gate in the border wall.
#BORDERNEWS 10:55 PM Update. We’re at Rincon Village. Very close to Mission, TX. Same area as a previous update but these are completely new people. A totally new group of 50+. As I tweet this there are more coming up to meet this group and approach Border Patrol. #Immigration pic.twitter.com/k1Gw5UaKHF
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
By 11 p.m., Hernandez was back at the site near Rincon, where a new group of illegal immigrants were lining up to wait for buses and it quickly grew from more than 50 to over 150.
“Another group, this one is a little bit bigger, about 50 … and you can see there’s tiny babies right there that are on the ground,” Hernandez said. “And this group in particular, there’s one pregnant woman …”
“She’s about nine months pregnant, so she did tell the agents she’s going to deliver in about a week or two, per her doctor.”
#BORDERNEWS I’m so sorry these updates are coming out a bit delayed on time due to the lack of signal out here. But this is exactly what is happening just after 12:30 AM on the border. #BorderReports #JustFacts #Immigration pic.twitter.com/BWc2wsrDQg
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
And they kept coming for hours, with buses on a steady rotation taking the illegal border crossers to the Border Patrol processing center.
“Two buses have already left this area from the last 30 minutes,” Hernandez said around midnight. “And there’s going to be more coming. There’s a lot.”
#BORDERNEWS WATCH THIS 12:00AM UPDATE The group you saw in the last update has now turned into about 150 people. One woman just had gastric bypass and will need to get checked out by EMT. More are still walking up near Rincon. Buses leaving. #Immigation #Texas #RGV #BorderReports pic.twitter.com/IUImtYPwEz
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
Agents interviewed pregnant woman and others with special medical conditions as the line waiting for buses swelled to over 150.
“The pregnant woman that I showed you, she’s fine, according to the agent, but they have a woman who had just had gastric bypass so they’re going to have to check her out,” said Hernandez, who posted an aerial video of dozens waiting for the next bus.
#BORDERNEWS FINAL UPDATE: Thanks for watching these super short informal clips of what’s happening on the Texas Mexico Border. This is what it looks like just feet from the Rio Grande while the rest of the world is sleeping. Next shift of agents just showed up. #BorderReport #RGV pic.twitter.com/xFpiWEjmA3
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) July 11, 2019
“This is what it looks like just feet from the Rio Grande while the rest of the world is sleeping,” she wrote in the Twitter post. “Next shift of agents just showed up.”
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