Border Patrol released video Friday afternoon showing smugglers using a rope to lower a mother and her two young children down the 30-foot Calexico-Mexicali border wall.
The incident occurred Thursday at approximately 3:15 a.m. about three miles west of the Calexico West Port of Entry, according to Border Patrol officials.
Camera operators saw three smugglers provide a ladder to climb the fence on the Mexican side of the border. They also provided a rope and physically lowered each adult down the border wall into the United States.
“Smugglers often use this tactic to minimize their own risk of injury,” said Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino. “They are willing to put others in jeopardy, including children, even when they won’t risk themselves.”
Surveillance video captured a man being lowered down the border wall by rope. Camera operators noticed a second man being lowered, but this time with a 6-year-old child clinging to his back. Subsequently, a woman, holding on to a 2-year-old child, was lowered by smugglers.
Agents took the three adults with the two children into custody and were transported to the El Centro Station Processing Center for further processing.
“These heartless, greedy smugglers continue to endanger the lives of undocumented individuals for money,” said Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino. “We were lucky that the mother and her two children, as well as the other two men, were not dropped from the 30-foot border wall. I implore those who are looking to hire these smugglers to consider the extreme dangers of crossing the border illegally into the United States.”
Agents determined that the two children, a 2-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy, and their 32-year-old mother, were all undocumented individuals from Venezuela.
The two other adults, a 28-year-old man and a 31-year-old man, were both undocumented individuals from Venezuela had no relation to the mother and two children.
25 апр 2021
