The migrants, composed mostly of single, military-age men from northern Africa, crossed the border in throngs. They ran past several reporters at the scene, many of them excitedly talking about their illegal entry into America. The incident was reported in real-time, with Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin sharing footage on X.
Melugin said there was a continuous line of individuals crossing into Lukeville, Arizona. He added that more people were expected to follow, with some migrants indicating that hundreds were still on the way.
In Arizona, huge groups of migrant men, women and some families with children spent the night in a makeshift staging ground in this rugged section of the U.S.-Mexico border where they await for exhausted border officials to process them.
Many of them are expected to be released into the U.S. after being vetted by local Border Patrol agents, who do not have the necessary resources and manpower to screen everyone swiftly.
Most of the migrant men come from African countries, such as Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco and Senegal. Others come from nations in Asia like Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Syria.
According to some of the men, they left their hometowns in Ecuador and other parts of Latin America. The majority of the families traveling with children are from Mexico and Central America.
The migrants tend to build campfires at night and in the early morning hours to stay warm amid dropping temperatures. Many brought blankets so they could sleep next to the border wall.
Without restrooms, the illegal migrants relieved themselves near the cacti along the landscape of the national monument, located two hours away from the closest U.S. city.
The wait to be processed was so long that Mexican families and merchants travel regularly to the area to sell drinks and food. Sellers offer burritos, tamales and cups of coffee to the migrants from the other side of the border wall. (Related: Border Patrol sector in Arizona STOPS POSTING UPDATES amid ongoing surge of illegals.)
Immigrants say they want to go to America to seek better opportunities or reunite with family
Some of the African and Ecuadorian men who were waiting to be taken into custody by Border Patrol shared that they had been traveling for days or weeks across Latin America to find better opportunities in the United States. The men cited the deteriorating economic and security conditions in their homelands as their primary reasons for entering the country.
Others said they have family members in different states like New York and Texas.
Economic misfortune and the wish to reunite with relatives are not grounds for U.S. asylum because it can only be granted to migrants fleeing persecution based on specific factors, such as their religion, race or political views.
But for the last few years, the U.S. asylum system has become a proxy process for migrants to stay and work in the country, regardless if their claims are valid or not.
A growing backlog of at least three million pending cases has slowed down the federal immigration court system's ability to assess claims on time.
However, many of the migrants are not screened for asylum at the southern border, according to federal statistics. The government lacks asylum officers, holding facilities and other resources to interview asylum-seekers under a process called expedited removal.
In turn, many of those who are not deported are often released with court cases that can take years to complete.
Other migrants traveling the Arizona desert said they're escaping dangerous situations. Segura Salgado, a migrant mother from Mexico, said she came to the U.S. due to the violence in the Mexican state of Guerrero, a region beset by violent crime and drug trafficking. Salgado added that a relative was recently killed in Guerrero.
The sudden increase in migrant crossings comes as Congress debates an overhaul of the asylum system. Since Joe Biden took office in January 2021, it is estimated that more than 10 million illegal aliens have entered America.
The situation at the border is still a hotly debated topic, with the latest breach in Arizona acting as a sobering reminder of the ongoing challenges faced in border security and immigration enforcement.
Watch the video below as Nicole Malliotakis decries new migrant policies.
This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com.
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