Immigrants illegally entering the United States in Texas face a new difficulty as winter creeps into the vast desert expanses that many new arrivals find themselves in once they cross the border.
Temperatures are forecasted to plummet below freezing during the nighttime hours in the desert, posing potential dangers for migrants as they enter the United States. However, the chilling conditions also pose challenges for border agents and local law enforcement operating in the Texas and New Mexico desert, responsible for apprehending illegal migrants.
U.S. Border Patrol officials in El Paso have issued warnings regarding not only the freezing temperatures but also the dangerous circumstances that migrants encounter once they are in the open desert. Once immigrants successfully cross the U.S.-Mexico border into Terrell County, Texas, they are confronted with a minimum of 20 miles that they must navigate.
According to Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, the death toll in the past four years has reached 43. He emphasized that there are still six bodies yet to be recovered, indicating that these individuals likely perished while attempting to cross the U.S. border.
Some survivors have turned to nature for assistance. In one instance, a migrant used dead cactus stocks to form the word “help,” catching the attention of a nearby rancher who promptly notified law enforcement. In another incident, law enforcement in Cleveland discovered an 18-year-old man who had been abandoned by a group of fellow immigrants. Without their intervention, the young man could have succumbed to the harsh cold conditions.
According to Cleveland, these requests for assistance are frequently employed as a means to divert the attention of border agents from apprehending groups of immigrants who have unlawfully entered the country.
“It’s a common tactic that we see not just here but across the border in its entirety,” Cleveland told NewsNation.
