U.S. Border Patrol: group of 1,036 migrants is largest ever found

World
Europe

A group of 1,036 migrants that crossed the border illegally in El Paso, Texas, is the largest the Border Patrol has ever encountered, the agency said Thursday.

A Border Patrol surveillance video that President Donald Trump shared on Twitter shows people filing under a chain-link fence to a spot on the U.S. side, where they waited for agents to pick them up. Authorities said it took about five minutes for all to cross around 4 a.m. on Wednesday near downtown El Paso.

The group included 934 people in families, 63 unaccompanied children and 39 single adults, authorities said. The majority were from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection CCTV video image shows undocumented migrants crossing the Rio Grande River into El Paso, Texas, May 29. /AFP Photo

The crossing was the latest sign that migrants are increasingly coming in large groups. The Border Patrol said it has found 180 groups of more than 100 people, 48 groups of more than 200 people, 10 over 300 and two over 400 since October.

The Border Patrol arrested a group of 430 on Monday in the same area of El Paso as Wednesday's group.

An official of the Department of Homeland Security said the number of immigrants arrested and rejected in May could top 120,000.

Large groups began appearing last year in the southwestern corner of New Mexico known as the Bootheel and are increasingly common along the border.

Some of the 1,036 migrants who crossed the border into the United States together at El Paso, Texas, May 29. /AFP Photo

U.S. authorities are unsure why but said human smugglers often oversee the movement of migrants at the border and use the groups to distract federal law enforcement while they move narcotics or people hoping to avoid arrest over unmanned parts of the border. Smugglers charge migrants an average of 5,000 to 8,000 U.S. dollars each to get to the United States.

After sharing the video of a caravan-sized group crossing the border on his Twitter, President Donald Trump soon claimed to impose five percent tariffs on all goods U.S. imported from Mexico on June 10th, until the illegal migrants coming through Mexico and into the U.S. stop.

"The Tariff will gradually increase until the illegal immigration problem is remedied," he added.

In a presidential statement that followed, he said that tariffs would be raised to 10 percent on July 1 "if the crisis persists," and then by an additional five percent each month for three months.

Workers build a border fence to stop migrants on private property in Texas across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. /AFP Photo

Mexico's top diplomat for North America vowed to retaliate.

"It's disastrous. If this threat is carried out, it would be extremely serious," said Jesus Seade, under-secretary for North American affairs at the Mexican foreign ministry.

"If this is put in place, we must respond vigorously," he told a press conference.

According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. imports of goods from Mexico totaled 346.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. That includes cars and machinery as well as agricultural products.

(With inputs from agencies.)