Illegal immigrants arriving at the southern border are telling reporters they made the dangerous trek north based on promises advertised on television and in their hometown newspapers touting “free” stuff for illegals in the USA.

“The whole world knows, they put it in the news, they tell us everywhere if you come to the United States, they’ll help you,” a Honduran woman told KGBT’s Sydney Hernandez.

The ads convinced her whole family to relocate to America after she said gangs attempted to extort money from the family business.

“We came with nothing. We came by God’s grace and God is very good to us because look where he’s brought us,” she told Hernandez near Mission, Texas.

Others in the group confirmed the advertisements are promoting the “free” opportunities for illegals in the U.S.

“They say if we come to the United States we can find work,” one man said.

“Yes we’ve been told that, we read it on our newspapers,” said another man, who identified himself as a pastor. “That’s why we’re here.”

“We’ve been told if you are a father you can bring your child and you will be helped here if you’re in that situation,” the pastor said.

The man told Hernandez he’s seeking asylum because his son received death threats in Guatemala over an extramarital affair. Border Patrol officials contend men showing up at the border with children seeking asylum has become the new trend.

“In 2014, I believe, only one percent was single males with children,” an official said. “Now it’s up to 50 percent.”

Several illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector told Hernandez they brought young children with them to more quickly get through processing at the border, including one man who admitted the child he brought along wasn’t his own.

“The reason why they do it is because it’s the easiest way for them to actually come into the country and they’re able to, after being processed, they will be let go because of our limited capacity at this time,” a Border Patrol agent told KGBT.

The news site pointed to advertisements online promoting coyote services with costs that vary by the route into the United States, from a few thousand dollars to trek through the mountains to more than $20,000 by plane or vehicle.

Others advertise through Facebook or other social media, Hernandez said.

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KGBT previously reported on how the flood of thousands of illegal immigrants are overwhelming Border Patrol agents along the southern border, a situation that’s now forcing the government to immediately release immigrant family units after processing due to lack of space.

Those family units – either men or women or both with children – have been dropped at area homeless shelters in border communities, but those facilities are also at capacity.

Hernandez visited a McAllen, Texas bus station last month, where several illegal immigrants said they were dropped off by shelter workers with a bus ticket and notice to appear at an immigration hearing months in the future, The American Mirror reports.

“So right now what’s happening with these people, they have a bus ticket,” Hernandez said in March. “They are free to go to the destination of choice and they are told to come back and appear at their court date.

“Some of these court dates are as far back as July,” she said. “I spoke to some of them, New York, Virginia, that’s where they’re headed. To other places that have some family with them.”