A look inside an apprehension near Morelos Dam
One dozen Central Americans were apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning near County 9th Street and the Levee road.
The scene is an everyday reality for the hundreds of Border Patrol agents that patrol the Yuma sector, according to Border Patrol’s Agent Jose Garibay.
During Wednesday’s apprehension, the group crossed near the Morelos Dam, about a quarter mile from the U.S.- Mexico border.
One of the dozen a woman who is six months pregnant who came prepared.
“My papers regarding my pregnancy and my documentation,” said the pregnant woman from Honduras.
Also amongst the group, a 16-year-old, who decided to travel into the United States alone, were part of the dozen that were apprehended.
“My plan is to get [to Tennessee] and work to help my parents because they can’t work,” said Marvin Perez Martinez, a boy from Guatemala.
Agent Garibay explained what will happen to the group next.
“Everybody will eventually be transported into the custody of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations]. Depending on the case of each individual they could be transferred into the custody of Health and Human Services, the Office of Refugee Resettlement or elsewhere,” said Garibay.
Garibay has been an agent for two and a half years and said agents apprehend roughly 100 to 200 individuals daily.
Border Patrol claimed that there resources are strained due to the new humanitarian mission they are carrying out.
“Due to the fact that the current budget of 6.4 million that we have allocated for the sector is earmarked for our national security mission for which we’re charged by Congress, but since 2014 we’ve started allocating an increasing number of those funds for this unfunded humanitarian mission that we’ve started to see,” explained Agent Garibay.
Last fiscal year Border Patrol said they spent about $320,000 on humanitarian costs and this year to date they have already spent more than $400,000.
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