Border Patrol video shows more than 110 migrants scaling the 18-foot US-Mexico border fence with a ladder – By Michelle Mark (Business Insider) / Jan 25 2019
Dozens of migrants scaled an 18-foot segment of US-Mexico border fence in Arizona on Monday using a ladder provided by a smuggler, according to surveillance footage the US Customs and Border Protection agency released.
In the video, migrants can be seen climbing one-by-one to the top of the fence, then dropping down on the US side using what appears to be a rope.
In the final few seconds of the video, the camera zooms in on a lone figure running south from the Mexican side of the border, hauling what appears to be a ladder across the person’s back.
The video’s release comes just days after CBP released a similar video showing 376 migrants walking along the border after using seven tunnels to bypass the border fence.
Both videos were taken in Arizona’s Yuma sector, much of which is lined with steel bollard-style fencing.
On Monday #CBP #YumaSector Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of 110+ Central Americans who illegally scaled the wall with the assistance of a smuggler with a ladder #NationalSecurity #SouthwestBorder pic.twitter.com/T19JzI3xeC
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) January 23, 2019
A Border Patrol spokesman told The Arizona Republic that the video shows how “brazen” and “unafraid” smugglers have become.
“They know that we’re not gonna go into Mexico to apprehend them,” Jose Garibay told the newspaper. “So once he puts up that ladder, gets his commodity — in which he looks at these humans — in the United States, then he takes down his ladder, and as you saw in the video, just walks back to wherever he hid the ladder and continues on with his day.”
The news comes amid an ongoing conflict between President Donald Trump and Congressional Democrats over border security, which Trump has said is a critical issue. Democrats and critics of the wall have pointed to various strategies migrants have used in the past to bypass physical barriers, including ladders and tunnels.
A dispute over $5.7 billion for 230 miles of border wall that Trump has demanded sparked a 35-day-long government shutdown. Trump announced Friday afternoon that he had reached a deal to temporarily re-open the government without any wall funding. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure later on Friday.
https://www.businessinsider.com/border-patrol-video-migrants-scale-wall-with-ladder-2019-1
