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Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio
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Two-year-old Sherley Fuentes is held firmly by her mother as mostly Central American immigrant families arrive at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, Texas after being released by U.S. immigrations officials.
Two-year-old Sherley Fuentes is held firmly by her mother as mostly Central American immigrant families arrive at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 2 of 8
U.S. Border supervisory Border Patrol agent Jose Luis Perales watches a popular crossing spot along the Rio Grande near Anzalduas Dam, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
U.S. Border supervisory Border Patrol agent Jose Luis Perales watches a popular crossing spot along the Rio Grande near Anzalduas Dam, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an ... more Photo: San Antonio Express-NewsImage 3 of 8
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter visitors and volunteers applaud as mostly Central American families arrive in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter visitors and volunteers applaud as mostly Central American families arrive in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 4 of 8
Ana Membreno, 33, takes a rest after arriving at the at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, Texas after being released by U.S. immigrations officials. She was traveling with her fourteen-year-old son to Houston after leaving their country of El Salvador.
Ana Membreno, 33, takes a rest after arriving at the at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 5 of 8
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter operation manager Eli Fernandez briefs mostly Central American families arriving in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter operation manager Eli Fernandez briefs mostly Central American families arriving in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 6 of 8
A U.S. Border and Protection agent walks along a smuggling trail leading from the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
A U.S. Border and Protection agent walks along a smuggling trail leading from the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in ... more Photo: San Antonio Express-NewsImage 7 of 8
Ten-month-old Zenaida Chavez waits for another spoonful of soup from her mother, Mercedes Chavez, 27, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest. The family, from El Salvador, were on their way to Virginia.
Ten-month-old Zenaida Chavez waits for another spoonful of soup from her mother, Mercedes Chavez, 27, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 8 of 8
A man is seen fishing the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
A man is seen fishing the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from ... morePhoto: San Antonio Express-NewsImmigrants keep on coming
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HIDALGO — The busiest corner of the Southwest border weaves around verdant fields of winter vegetables, cutting through parks, skirting wildlife refuge lands and rising on levees above tiny communities founded centuries ago.
Immigrant children and families have streamed into this 20-mile swath of the Rio Grande Valley by the tens of thousands in recent years, at times overwhelming immigration authorities.
But for the U.S. Border Patrol agents who keep watch here, the long hours of tedium are as often interrupted by the frantic rush to apprehend immigrants as the sight of men lazily fishing along irrigation canals or a septuagenarian in search of exotic birds.
“This job isn‘t for everyone,” said Monique Grame, deputy patrol agent in charge of the McAllen Border Patrol Station. “The hours are long and shifts are at all hours of the night and day. It’s hard.”
Border Patrol agents caught almost 21,500 families crossing the border illegally between October and December, a nearly 200 percent increase from the same period the previous year. During the same three-month period, border agents picked up another 17,300-plus children traveling alone, almost 120 percent higher than the year before.
And it is here, along the sandy banks of the Rio Grande, that border agents have swept up people from 140 countries. It’s the busiest stretch along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Minors and mothers with young children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras still make up the majority of immigrants caught in South Texas.
Despite efforts to stem the flow of immigrants here their numbers are once again on the rise, prompting the opening of new shelters in December to house them, with plans to open three more this year. During a recent visit to McAllen, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske considered the possibility that the trend has become the new normal.
“We’ve seen an uptick this January compared to January of last year, but we haven’t seen the strain or stress of 2014,” said Grame. “It’s busy on the weekends, other days it’s slow.”
Wednesday, under sunny skies, Grame patrolled a twisting, rutted single-lane dirt track under a canopy of salt cedar and mesquite; only the rotor thwack of helicopters overhead disrupted the bucolic surroundings.
She drove slowly past a Texas National Guard sentinel and a group of border agents launching boats into the river before stopping near a trail of deflated rafts, slashed by agents to render them unusable to smugglers.
Soiled clothing clung to the bramble and branches of scraggly trees, carrizo obscuring the river. Left behind were life jackets, toothbrushes, shoes and myriad underwear.
A few feet from the Rio Grande, an immigrant from India had discarded his Mexican travel visa in the brush. As Grame picked up the tightly folded papers and hotel receipts, she said other Indian immigrants had been doing the same with their travel documents.
“We’ll give this to our intel shop and they’ll try to trace it back to where it originated,” Grame said. “People are going to come across no matter what, but this helps us identify some of the smuggling operations.”
Farther on, an agent watched the river for illegal activity on a small monitor from inside a metal box positioned a quarter-mile away amid a field of onion sprouts. The technology is one of several powerful Defense Department monitoring systems redeployed to the border for this purpose.
Grame passed other Border Patrol vehicles and law enforcement agencies patrolling the area, but no immigrants.
Maybe not that morning, but still the immigrants come.
Mercedes Chavez, 27, an immigrant from El Salvador fed her doe-eyed 10-month old daughter noodle soup in McAllen’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Tuesday evening.
More than 30,000 immigrants, many of them fleeing rampant violence in their homelands, have been taken here since June 2014 for temporary food and shelter.
Earlier this month, Chavez left her home in Sonsonate, El Salvador, with her infant and 10-year-old daughter.
“The gang wanted $2,000 or the little girl,” Chavez said. Refusing to give up her child, she added, “I sold my refrigerator, my television and left everything else behind.”
anelsen@express-news.net
Twitter: @amnelsen
iHeart.SmythRadio.com
Two-year-old Sherley Fuentes is held firmly by her mother as mostly Central American immigrant families arrive at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, Texas after being released by U.S. immigrations officials.
Two-year-old Sherley Fuentes is held firmly by her mother as mostly Central American immigrant families arrive at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 2 of 8
U.S. Border supervisory Border Patrol agent Jose Luis Perales watches a popular crossing spot along the Rio Grande near Anzalduas Dam, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
U.S. Border supervisory Border Patrol agent Jose Luis Perales watches a popular crossing spot along the Rio Grande near Anzalduas Dam, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an ... more Photo: San Antonio Express-NewsImage 3 of 8
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter visitors and volunteers applaud as mostly Central American families arrive in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter visitors and volunteers applaud as mostly Central American families arrive in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 4 of 8
Ana Membreno, 33, takes a rest after arriving at the at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, Texas after being released by U.S. immigrations officials. She was traveling with her fourteen-year-old son to Houston after leaving their country of El Salvador.
Ana Membreno, 33, takes a rest after arriving at the at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The Honduran mother and daughter were traveling to Dallas, ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 5 of 8
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter operation manager Eli Fernandez briefs mostly Central American families arriving in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter operation manager Eli Fernandez briefs mostly Central American families arriving in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 6 of 8
A U.S. Border and Protection agent walks along a smuggling trail leading from the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
A U.S. Border and Protection agent walks along a smuggling trail leading from the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in ... more Photo: San Antonio Express-NewsImage 7 of 8
Ten-month-old Zenaida Chavez waits for another spoonful of soup from her mother, Mercedes Chavez, 27, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter serves as the first stop for immigrants released by immigration officials. It provided food, clothing and a place to clean up and rest. The family, from El Salvador, were on their way to Virginia.
Ten-month-old Zenaida Chavez waits for another spoonful of soup from her mother, Mercedes Chavez, 27, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church immigrant shelter in McAllen, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The shelter ... more Photo: Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-NewsImage 8 of 8
A man is seen fishing the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from Central America towards the end of 2015.
A man is seen fishing the Mexican side of the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016. The Rio Grande Valley sector has seen an increased of traffic in families and unaccompanied minors from ... morePhoto: San Antonio Express-NewsImmigrants keep on coming
Back to Gallery
HIDALGO — The busiest corner of the Southwest border weaves around verdant fields of winter vegetables, cutting through parks, skirting wildlife refuge lands and rising on levees above tiny communities founded centuries ago.
Immigrant children and families have streamed into this 20-mile swath of the Rio Grande Valley by the tens of thousands in recent years, at times overwhelming immigration authorities.
But for the U.S. Border Patrol agents who keep watch here, the long hours of tedium are as often interrupted by the frantic rush to apprehend immigrants as the sight of men lazily fishing along irrigation canals or a septuagenarian in search of exotic birds.
“This job isn‘t for everyone,” said Monique Grame, deputy patrol agent in charge of the McAllen Border Patrol Station. “The hours are long and shifts are at all hours of the night and day. It’s hard.”
Border Patrol agents caught almost 21,500 families crossing the border illegally between October and December, a nearly 200 percent increase from the same period the previous year. During the same three-month period, border agents picked up another 17,300-plus children traveling alone, almost 120 percent higher than the year before.
And it is here, along the sandy banks of the Rio Grande, that border agents have swept up people from 140 countries. It’s the busiest stretch along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Minors and mothers with young children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras still make up the majority of immigrants caught in South Texas.
Despite efforts to stem the flow of immigrants here their numbers are once again on the rise, prompting the opening of new shelters in December to house them, with plans to open three more this year. During a recent visit to McAllen, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske considered the possibility that the trend has become the new normal.“We’ve seen an uptick this January compared to January of last year, but we haven’t seen the strain or stress of 2014,” said Grame. “It’s busy on the weekends, other days it’s slow.”
Wednesday, under sunny skies, Grame patrolled a twisting, rutted single-lane dirt track under a canopy of salt cedar and mesquite; only the rotor thwack of helicopters overhead disrupted the bucolic surroundings.
She drove slowly past a Texas National Guard sentinel and a group of border agents launching boats into the river before stopping near a trail of deflated rafts, slashed by agents to render them unusable to smugglers.
Soiled clothing clung to the bramble and branches of scraggly trees, carrizo obscuring the river. Left behind were life jackets, toothbrushes, shoes and myriad underwear.
A few feet from the Rio Grande, an immigrant from India had discarded his Mexican travel visa in the brush. As Grame picked up the tightly folded papers and hotel receipts, she said other Indian immigrants had been doing the same with their travel documents.
“We’ll give this to our intel shop and they’ll try to trace it back to where it originated,” Grame said. “People are going to come across no matter what, but this helps us identify some of the smuggling operations.”
Farther on, an agent watched the river for illegal activity on a small monitor from inside a metal box positioned a quarter-mile away amid a field of onion sprouts. The technology is one of several powerful Defense Department monitoring systems redeployed to the border for this purpose.
Grame passed other Border Patrol vehicles and law enforcement agencies patrolling the area, but no immigrants.
Maybe not that morning, but still the immigrants come.
Mercedes Chavez, 27, an immigrant from El Salvador fed her doe-eyed 10-month old daughter noodle soup in McAllen’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Tuesday evening.
More than 30,000 immigrants, many of them fleeing rampant violence in their homelands, have been taken here since June 2014 for temporary food and shelter.
Earlier this month, Chavez left her home in Sonsonate, El Salvador, with her infant and 10-year-old daughter.
“The gang wanted $2,000 or the little girl,” Chavez said. Refusing to give up her child, she added, “I sold my refrigerator, my television and left everything else behind.”
anelsen@express-news.net
Twitter: @amnelsen
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