With thousands of migrants arriving daily, the United States border with Mexico experiences moments of tension and emotions marked by the determination of those seeking to live the American dream without a visa.
In the city of Eagle Pass, in the state of Texas, the sun barely rose on Sunday (24), when bags of migrants were already struggling in the water to rescue a one-year-old baby and his mother, who were hit by a current in the middle of the way. .
The migrants had gathered their belts together to use them as rope, but the water current broke them.
The rescue was carried out by the migrants themselves, who mobilized while little Olga cried and the military on the American coast watched.
The wave of applause and crash upon reaching the ground was soon succeeded by one last obstacle: a tangle of barbed wire that Texas authorities reinforce daily and that prevent passage in regions like this, which do not have walls, along more than 3,000 miles of border.
Returning is not an option, so the migrants follow the path.
Further down, Yonder Urbina, who saved Olga, and her cousin, Oskeivys González, found a wall of containers that they climbed to reach the US.
While the border patrol rescued the rest of the group trapped in the water, others on the edge of Piedras Negras crossed over to the American side of the coast.
“We achieved”
After the tense moments on the river, where agents commonly intervene with a lifeboat, hundreds of people gather in front of the intimidating barbed wire wall.
When the temperature reached 40ºC, the border patrol had to cut part of this wire to rescue the migrants from the unbearable temperature.
“We just want to take our children and move on,” said 38-year-old Venezuelan Yusmayra Pirel.
Most of the migrants had only the clothes on their backs, as well as their cell phones damaged by the crossing, documents and data from their family members in the USA.
Ana Hernández asked for water to pour on her 10-month-old baby’s head. “They wanted to steal our babies from a supermarket (in Mexico), so we ran,” she said.
After noon, when more than 300 people had already advanced, another mother with three children arrived on American shores. Her children were injured when they passed through the barbed wire on the banks of the Rio Grande, but were rescued by the patrol. “Thank God we did it,” said Venezuelan Leonel Fernández.
As troops from Operation Lone Star – launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott – covered the holes in the barbed wire fence with new wires, more migrants continued to enter the river.
“This is a hot place. Today was tense, but for us it’s another day at the border,” admitted one of the agents.
© Agence France-Presse
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