Rumors of 'open border' prompt migrant rush to US
Dec 18, 2024
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The U.S. Border Patrol is warning migrants the border remains closed to illegal entries.
This, after groups of presumed asylum-seekers crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico early Wednesday. Video taken by Border Report news partner ProVideo shows migrants being turned back by razor wire barriers and the Texas Army National Guard. One of the videos shows migrants apparently struggling to breathe and coughing. One Juarez news report states pepper balls or spray was fired in the migrants' direction.
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“Rumors circulating on social media that areas between the ports of entry on the southwest border will be open for migration due to the International Migrant’s Day are patently false,” the Border Patrol said in a statement Wednesday.
This is not the first time a push on social media chat groups followed by migrants en route to the United States sends them across the border on false premises.
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In February of last year, for instance, hundreds of Venezuelans and other foreign nationals showed up at Gate 36 of the border wall in El Paso after rumors the U.S. was deploying buses to take migrants to Canada.
The Border Patrol “continues to warn migrants not to listen to misinformation being circulated by transnational criminal organizations about entering the United States illegally between the ports of entry,” the statement said.
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Later in the day, a new group of migrants approached the border wall further downstream. Migrants scattered as a helicopter hovered above and created a dust storm.