Inside Roma, the small Texas border town that has become the epicenter of illegal crossings into the US, where smugglers on rafts brazenly ferry hundreds shouting 'children aboard'
A small Texas border town has become the new epicenter of a surge in illegal entry into the U.S., with smugglers there brazenly ferrying hundreds of migrants across the Rio Grande every night.
Roma, a town with historic buildings and boarded-up storefronts in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, is the latest epicenter of illegal crossings, where growing numbers of families and children are entering the United States to seek asylum.
With a population of 10,000, Roma is 98 percent Hispanic, and faces economic challenges, with more than half of all residents living under the poverty line.
Each night as darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. It is about to get busy.
The Rio Grande runs between Roma, Texas, right, and Ciudad Miguel Aleman in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Roma is at the epicenter of a huge surge in illegal entry into the US that is overwhelming border officials
Roma is home to an international bridge Ciudad Miguel Aleman. The area has become a hotspot for illegal migration due to the easy river access on both sides of the border, and hundreds cross the river hear each night
Each night as darkness sets on the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents hear pumps inflating rafts across the river in Mexico. Above, migrants cross in a raft at Roma on Wednesday
Within an hour, about 100 people have been dropped off in the United States, including many families with toddlers and children as young as seven traveling alone.
All of them wear numbered yellow plastic wristbands that look like they could be used to get into a concert or amusement park, and everyone rips them off and tosses them on the ground after setting foot in the U.S.
Large black letters on the wristbands read, 'Entregas,' or 'Deliveries,' apparently a mechanism for smugglers to keep track of migrants they are ferrying across the river that separates Texas and Mexico.
U.S. authorities reported more than 100,000 encounters on the southern border in February, the highest since a four-month streak in 2019.
Encounters have averaged about 5,000 people per day throughout March, which would be about a 50 percent increase over February if those figures hold for the entire month, according to a senior Border Patrol official, who spoke to reporters Friday on condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary figures.
More than 16,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of Thursday, including about 5,000 in substandard Customs and Border Protection facilities.
Many migrants say they view President Joe Biden as welcoming to illegal immigrants, and undertook their journey after he took office, but Biden has insisted that his administration´s immigration policies are not responsible for the rising numbers.
At his first news conference since taking office, Biden said Thursday that the government will take steps to more quickly move hundreds of migrant children and teenagers out of cramped detention facilities to more comfortable accomodations.
Starr County, where Roma is located, made a dramatic shift toward Donald Trump in the 2020 election, when Biden won the county by just 5 points after Hillary Clinton's margin was more than 60 points four years earlier.
On the Rio Grande, a smuggler balked on Wednesday when a U.S. agent asks him to land downriver on a rare patch of sand, complaining that another agent punctured his raft days earlier. The agent reassures him and negotiates a landing away from gnarly branches.
'Children aboard,' another smuggler shouts to authorities.
Migrants, mostly from Central American countries, wade through shallow waters after being delivered by smugglers on small inflatable rafts on U.S. soil in Roma, Texas on Wednesday
Migrants wear numbered plastic wristbands that cartel smugglers use to keep track of who has paid for the journey
Many migrants say they view President Joe Biden as welcoming to illegal immigrants. Above, migrants wade through shallow waters after being delivered by smugglers on small inflatable rafts on U.S. soil in Roma, Texas on Wednesday
A young child walks alone through the brush after being smuggled across the Rio Grande river in Roma, Texas, Wednesday. A surge of migrants on the Southwest border has the Biden administration on the defensive
Minors, mostly from Guatemala, wait at a U.S. Border Patrol intake site after they were smuggled on an inflatable raft across the Rio Grande river in Roma, Texas on Wednesday
As the rafts approached shore Wednesday night, smugglers jumped into the shallow water, lifted children and took the hands of adults lined up single file to get off the rafts.
The migrants walked - or are carried - a few steps, and the smuggler turned around for the next passenger without touching dry land.
A 7-year-old girl named Kaylee fought back tears as she bemoaned leaving her phone in the raft. A smuggler tells her she didn't, and she appears to shrug it off. Her mother's U.S. phone number is written in black marker on the arm of her shirt.
U.S. agents escort groups of migrants about a half-mile over dirt roads to a dead-end street on the edge of Roma, where other agents at a white folding table examine identification documents, take names and destinations, and answer questions.
Children traveling alone are separated from families, and people put their valuables in plastic bags.
From there, they head to a nearby parking lot and get into buses, vans and SUVs.
Unaccompanied children are supposed to be held by CBP no more than 72 hours, but they are often held longer because U.S. Health and Human Services lacks space.
With a population of 10,000, Roma is 98 percent Hispanic, and faces economic challenges, with more than half of all residents living under the poverty line
The median income in Roma is $15,500, and many of the city's downtown buildings are boarded up and vacant
The M. Guerra building in historic downtown Roma. The building was used in scenes from the 1950's movie 'Viva Zapata'
Health and Human Services is housing children at the Dallas Convention Center and said it will open emergency facilities at venues or military bases in San Antonio, El Paso, San Diego and elsewhere.
The Biden administration expels nearly all single adults without an opportunity to seek asylum under a public health order issued at the start of the pandemic. They're about 2,200 of the roughly 5,000 people encountered per day in March, according to the Border Patrol official.
Of that total, about 450 to 500 are unaccompanied minors and the rest are families who are being allowed to stay, at least temporarily, if the children are under 7 and if they can´t immediately be returned to Mexico, which has reduced the number of families it will accept into shelters in the state of Tamaulipas, south of the Rio Grande Valley, the official said.
It's not unusual to see increases in migrants crossing the border in the spring and summer, and the Border Patrol has faced similar situations in the past. But the official said the huge surge of teens and children and the space limitations resulting from the pandemic have made this year especially difficult.
'The reason this is much different this year than it has been in previous years is one, we are faced with some unique challenges,' he said.
In January and February, apprehensions of unaccompanied minors who crossed the southern border illegally surged 92 percent from the same period last year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
More than 300,000 solo adults were apprehended in the same period, a surge of 188 percent.
The area around Roma is a favorite with smugglers due to its easy access to the river on both sides of the border
A group of migrants follows an official through a neighborhood to an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, early Wednesday in Roma, Texas
A migrant man, center, holds a child as he looks at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent at an intake area after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, early Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Roma, Texas
A group of migrants families from Guatemala rest was they wait at an intake area set up by the U.S. border patrol in Roma on Wednesday. As soon as the sun set, at least 100 migrants were ferried across the Rio Grande river by smugglers
The huge number of people attempting the often dangerous illegal crossing has taken a tragic toll, including a nine-year-old girl from Mexico who drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande river to reach the United States.
According to CBP officials, the nine-year-old girl died last Saturday and was in the company of her mother and younger brother while trying to cross the Rio Grande.
The tragedy came just four days after two other migrants drowned in the Rio Grande.
In 2019, Central American migrants favored crossing in a nearby area in the Rio Grande Valley, which is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but a wall built during Donald Trump's presidency has pushed them closer to Roma, where the channel is relatively narrow but the current is brisk.
A 17-year-old from El Salvador said he left home recently because he felt threatened by gangs and believes Biden is sympathetic to migrants. Asked how he knew of Biden's positions, he said, 'people who talk.'
Maynor Cruz, 29, said Biden's policies had nothing do with his decision to leave San Pedro Sula, Honduras, about two months ago, but he heard that families with young children were being allowed to remain in the United States.
Cruz said he was happy to be in the U.S. after a treacherous journey through Mexico, during which someone tried to kidnap his daughter.
Smugglers talk to journalists after they delivered a group of migrants across the Rio Grande river in Roma, Texas, Wednesday
A smuggler takes migrants, mostly from Central American countries, on a small inflatable raft towards U.S. soil in Roma
Migrants wait at a U.S. Border Patrol intake site in Roma after they were smuggled on an inflatable raft across the Rio Grande
Border encounters have averaged about 5,000 people per day throughout March, which would be about a 50 percent increase over February
He left Honduras with his wife and children, ages 7 and 2, because he lost his job in a condiment factory when the pandemic struck and his home was destroyed by a tropical storm in November. He was able to raise enough money for the journey through family in the United States.
'It's difficult to begin from zero (in Honduras) with what you earn there,' he said.
At the river, a lull set in after the initial rush. CBP reported that it took 681 unaccompanied children into custody Wednesday, a total that excludes Mexicans, who are typically returned immediately.
On Thursday night, Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, led a group of Republican senators on a late night march along the Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border to hunt for migrants in a trip Democrats are blasting as a 'political stunt.'
The Texas senator led dueling group of lawmakers to the border on Friday to visit facilities holding migrant teens. Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas led a group of House Democrats on their own trek.
The Republican senators are in the Rio Grande Valley to draw attention to what they call Biden's 'border crisis.'
The Biden administration repeatedly has refused to describe the situation as a 'crisis' amid record high surges of migrants. The Rio Grande Valley is seeing some of the largest numbers of migrants crossing into the U.S.
