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Watch: Border Patrol Cameras Catch Armed Gunmen Dropping Woman, Son Off at Border

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United States Customs and Border Protection released footage this past week of a successful attempt by multiple armed gunmen to smuggle illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The over two-minute long video from Border Patrol cameras shows five masked men — some armed with assault rifles — pulling up to the border in a large vehicle on Saturday night and aiding a mother and her 8-year-old son sneak through a small segment of fencing into Arizona.

“Border Patrol cameras observed several men armed with assault rifles escort a mother and child to the international boundary west of Lukeville,” officials wrote in a description accompanying the video on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website.

The video was also posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Twitter account Tuesday.

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According to the description, the area is “commonly used by smugglers to bring massive numbers of Central Americans into the country illegally.”

Border Patrol reports released earlier this year indicate that the Yuma sector has one of the highest family and group apprehension rates of any section of the southern border, with the area between Tuscon and Yuma, Arizona, seeing groups as large as 100 smuggled across the border.

Justin Kallinger, a spokesman for the sector, told the Washington Examiner earlier this month that so many as 99 percent of those apprehended in the sector had paid upwards of $1,000 to be smuggled across by armed groups similar to the one shown in Saturday’s video.

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Kallinger also said that the use of children in smuggling operations at the southern border has become the “new advantageous tactic.”

“They can utilize loopholes in the immigration law. These children don’t know. They take these one month trips — traversing through horrible, horrible conditions multiple times,” Kallinger told the Examiner.

“Certain children are being recycled, 4-, 8-, 10-year-old children. They come with false documents from adults,” Kallinger added.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has been active on Twitter in the day since the video was posted, showcasing sizable drug busts at ports of entry nearby in Arizona.

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They also released a tweet attempting to bring attention to the tendency of these smugglers to abandon those who have paid them, leaving them in remote and dangerous places without proper supplies or protections.

“Criminal organizations often abandon migrants in the desert. #BorderPatrol agents recently rescued 2 illegal aliens after they activated a rescue beacon in AZ. The beacons are solar powered and feature instructions in multiple languages,” the tweet read.

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Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal. Having joined up as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, he went on to cover the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for the outlet, regularly co-hosting its video podcast, "WJ Live," as well.
Andrew J. Sciascia was the supervising editor of features at The Western Journal and regularly co-hosted the outlet's video podcast, "WJ Live."

Sciascia first joined up with The Western Journal as a regular contributor of opinion in 2018, before graduating with a degree in criminal justice and political science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and worked briefly as a political operative with the Massachusetts Republican Party.

He covered the Barrett confirmation and 2020 presidential election for The Western Journal. His work has also appeared in The Daily Caller.




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