Images captured exclusively by the Fox Business Network show national guards sleeping inside a border patrol truck, while a group of migrants newly arrived in the United States waits to surrender to the authorities.
Fox Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn and cameraman Tyson Rohlfs were on the ground in Rome, Texas, on Tuesday, hours after a flood of immigrants illegally entered the United States from Tamaulipas, Mexico.
Boats full of people disembarked after allegedly paying drug cartels in Mexico to get a ticket.
Discarded bracelets were found on the ground, just above a sandy slope in Rio Grande. The bracelets, purchased from drug cartels for up to $ 25,000 each, were proof of contact and approval from migrants.
At one point, Vaughn and Rohlfs found a marked Border Patrol pickup truck. Inside were two sleeping national guards who guarded the illegal entry point. Six migrants, apparently waiting to be deliberately detained and prosecuted by law enforcement officials, were just a few feet away.
After several minutes, a crew member walked over to the truck and politely knocked on the window to alert the guards.
Between 11pm on Monday and 2pm on Tuesday, Fox News watched about 150 people arriving on American soil by boat and heading to a parking lot to be prosecuted.
PERTURBENT VIDEO CAPTURE MIGRANTS DROWNING IN RIO GRANDE
In response to the footage, President of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), Brandon Judd, told Fox News that the incident is “a good example of the pressure that cartels are putting on government resources”.
“All staff are having to work extremely long hours, often away from home while living in hotels,” he said.
NBPC vice president Chris Cabrera told Fox News that the Border Patrol is grateful to the National Guard and understands that there is “great pressure” on its own resources to help them.
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“They are having to make their communities less safe and less men to come here and help us. So it has a great accordion effect. And it’s just – something needs to be done,” he said.
“We have nothing to do now. It is getting worse every day. And unless we get some real help, some real solutions, even temporary solutions, it will continue to get worse. And bad things happen when night falls down here.”