(NewsNation) — Criminal organizations are pushing desperate groups through new breach points in the Tucson sector along the Arizona border, stretching Border Patrol resources thinner.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Nogales have been overwhelmed with migrant families crossing into the U.S. in groups when usually, around this time of year, they are busy going after people trying to evade.
NewsNation’s Ali Bradley watched more than 90 people self-surrender to CBP agents in under an hour.
Bradley reported that families from Mexico crossed into the U.S. seeking asylum. The migrants told NewsNation that they left their home in Michoacán, Mexico, because they were being asked to pay money or be killed or kidnapped.
“Because my husband was threatened with death if he didn’t work with the cartels,” one migrant woman told Bradley. “He didn’t want to. We want asylum because if he doesn’t work with them, they will kill us.”
Mexican nationals typically qualify for expulsion under Title 42, yet family units have been an exception due to a court ruling last month.
Nogales isn’t the only spot that’s seen this increase, Bradley reported. Other nearby stations are experiencing hundreds of migrants from more than 10 different countries, including Nicaragua, Peru and Cuba — all self-surrendering.
CBP agents told Bradley that this has become the “norm” in the area.
Other sources also told NewsNation that agents are being pulled from across the Del Rio sector to help in Eagle Pass, where they say a holding facility is dealing with more than 2,300 migrants — the normal would be about 1,300.
Title 42 is set to end December 21 and no contingency plans have been put into place yet.