Largest single group of migrants ever tunnels under border wall in Arizona, says Border Protection

A group of 376, including nearly 200 minors, was arrested.

The largest single group of asylum seekers ever to cross into the U.S. tunneled beneath the border wall near San Luis, Arizona, on Monday, voluntarily turning themselves into Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency.

Migrants can be seen marching toward Border Patrol agents by the hundreds, according to video obtained by ABC News. Smugglers dug a series of seven holes, only a few feet long beneath the steel border fence, with hundreds going beneath the wall and a smaller number clambering over it, according to CBP.

The fresh sand and scuff marks of shoes on the rusty steel were still there when ABC News visited the site on Thursday.



A record large group of migrants tunneled under the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officials for asylum.

The agency says 179 of the record 376 people who crossed were children, including over 30 unaccompanied minors -- children under 18 traveling on their own.

The overall number of unauthorized crossings has plummeted since its peak in the 2001, when CBP logged about 1.6 million apprehensions, according to government statistics. However, the demography of those crossing has changed dramatically.

Parents with children now comprise over 80 percent of the total apprehensions of those crossing the 2,000-mile long border with Mexico. The vast majority of them, like the group near Yuma Monday, surrender immediately or seek out Border Patrol agents in order to begin the asylum process.

CBP Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik said his unit needs better border barriers, but more urgently it needs funding to provide for these families.

"That's our No. 1 challenge that we have here in the Yuma sector, is the humanitarian problem," Porvaznik said. "As I mentioned, 87 percent of the apprehensions here are family units and unaccompanied alien children."



The mass crossing this week took place in a sparsely populated stretch of the border -- where an old model of border barrier rises about 12 feet from the sandy ground. The stretched agency only had three agents patrolling that 26-mile-long section of the border.

It took hours to process the families, most of which were sent to the area’s chronically overcrowded central processing center in Yuma.

"In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people," Porvaznik said. "That's really unheard of."

On Thursday, hundreds of asylum seekers were being held in cinderblock cells with thick glass windows that overlooked a central bullpen where CBP agents worked to process them and provide humanitarian needs. The asylum seekers were separated into cells: fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, unaccompanied minors and mothers with children.

As in all such facilities, the CBP said it works to process them as quickly as possible, and provides basic medical care. Still, detainees eat, sleep and use the bathroom in the same room. Scraps of food mingled with silvery space blankets on the floor. In one cell, several boys had balled up the blankets into a makeshift soccer ball they were kicking around.



One man in the group said he left Guatemala eight days ago and made most of the trip by bus along with his 12-year-old daughter. They were planning to leave the processing center destined for San Diego -- plane ticket in hand.

The father said he saved about $5,000 to pay a coyote to quickly get them to the border. He left a wife and two younger daughters back in Guatemala. Next to them were a mother and two daughters on their way to Cincinnati, also from Guatemala. They too traveled by bus and the journey took about eight days.

Just two days after the group tunneled under the border wall in Yuma, the Border Patrol took in another huge group of migrants in New Mexico. The 247-person group, including unaccompanied minors, crossed near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry and immediately surrendered to authorities for processing.

The CBP said 24 large groups -- quantified as 100 or more -- have crossed the border near Lordsburg, New Mexico, just since Oct. 1, 2018.

More with Video

Disgusting, why the hell can't we just turn em around.

That was a poor design. You can't keep rabbits out of a garden only going that deep

In before the moat and alligator design.

Yea tunnels are part of a fence, electronic countermeasures and detection also part of a wall.

I honestly believe it's better to have two less secure walls with motion sensors between than it would be to have a single "more secure" wall.

If there is a will, they're is a way. The best chance we have of stopping them is by catching them before they can finish digging, making a ladder, etc. Two walls would all but eliminate the possibility of them getting across without being caught.

There goes another ~$12,000,000/yr (cost of welfare, food stamps, etc).

And that is just one group that was caught, think of how many make it through every day to the land of free shit.

Advocating murder is a violation of CoC #4 - kpel308

They aren’t seeking asylum, they are seeking a free check. Turn them all around.

Really need the heads on pikes form of deterrent.....

I made it!  Now gimme free shit and a plane ticket anywhere in the us!

On a completely unrelated note, did you know that many poisonous gases are heavier than air?

This.

This

I wonder who paid for this little skit?

"look, walls really don't work. see? I told you"

We need to stop letting the Dems and globalists control the dialog here: call this what it truly is and treat it accordingly. This is not a "humanitarian crisis" but an "attack on our sovereign nation by foreign invaders."

Use the military to cut them down in a hail of gunfire each time our borders are breached and word will get out quick.  This "crisis" will self-correct posthaste.

I could have cut a hole twice the size and in less time with a plasma torch.

There's no way to keep them all out all of the time.

I was in a say you Know that’s the angle that will be played. That’s not a tunnel. That a 2 foot deep hole.

How many 20 year olds claim to be less than 18 to game the system?

Probably a fuck ton.

... where's that fucking WALL?

Exactly.

Invaders.

We're fucked. There isn't any going back. Prepare accordingly.

Wrong Chief. We need to modify existing laws so we can hold them longer, deport them after they arrive , and make it harder to claim asylum.  Most that I have talked to are coming here as economic migrants, yet still claiming asylum. We aren't denying them, we aren't deporting them, ICE is releasing them into the US. Where is the penalty? Nowhere. Welcome to America, tell your friends they can come in too as long as they find a child to bring with them.

Shoot them all, let God sort them out.

What's your preps for Mexicans, bro?

We get quite a few. Most have "accidentally lost" their identifications or birth certificates.

With a wall, BP could focus their time on finding tunnels instead of scanning open desert...

How a nation commits suicide because they don't want to be called "the bad guys." Sometimes You just gotta be an asshole to protect what's yours.

Gated community in N Scottsdale. Run business though Corp. Take advantage of all available deductions. Stay on my side of town.

You can judge a society’s success by whether the machine guns face inward or outward.

DEMs......   Another manufactured crisis!!

You are all missing the point, it will be plastered on the news walls dont work, see 300 people dug 2 foot hole in sand and made it through.

Those arent the walls they are building now and I'm surprised the article mentioned that.

What would Mexico do to someone from the US who did that to get into their country illegally?  That is how we should treat these people.

Send all of these fuckers straight to Palosi's home town.
Build the wall around and under that place, and see how long Ca supports the insurgents.

I hope they cut them loose in HI.

Backfill the holes with concrete.

Lol they weren't caught.  They literally cross the border and immediately seek out BP to turn themselves in.  It's been like this for a while now, but GD can't seem to wrap their head around it.

We need to have several elements, not just the wall.

We need a physical barrier, a good one.

+ more CBP officers on station

+ stop this whole "release with the intent to show for a hearing" bullshit

+ establish immigrant camps that are controlled areas, and yes I can already hear the cries of "prison camps" "gulag" blah fucking blah.  The wall just got higher.

+ no more anchor kid bullshit

+ start deportation of illegals

+ criminal illegals that are caught are given mandatory prison sentences at hard labor, then deported. By hard labor, I mean something useful, not making license plates. Maybe something like digging a moat on the border.  Prison housing is at bare minimum levels and is not entertaining.

+ returning deportees caught again? Mandatory sentencing at hard labor, see above. Multiple offenses eventually wind up given life terms. Service to the state. Enjoy minimal health care and living conditions.

+ violent offenders that are illegals - fast lane death sentences

+ All funds that are channeled through common wire fund transfer services to certain countries are heavily taxed.

and, of course I'll add "never gonna fucking happen...ever".

Why did Whac-A-Mole just pop into my head?

MOAB=fixed

#truth

Then how would we ever become a 3rd world shithole?
I’m mean that’s the real goal.

Ditch

Wall

Mines

Surveillance drones

GSR

Well minus the HOA, the rest are common sense.

Honestly, this would be the only real long-term deterrence the more I think about the problem. Make a straight up fucking minefield a quarter mile wide. Replace as needed. That will make the fuckers think twice.

So instead of coming to a port of entry and presenting themselves for asylum they decided to sneak in but of course some scumbag judge here in the US of A said this is perfectly lawful

Start slinging lead and these fuckers will turn away.