AUSTIN, Texas — At least 12,000 migrants are camped out under the U.S. side of an international bridge that connects Mexico to Del Rio, Texas, as of Friday morning, as more noncitizens streamed across the border river overnight, according to a federal law enforcement official on site.
"First thing this morning, it was over 11. And now we're nearing — it's over 12," said Jon Anfinsen, a Border Patrol agent who is president of the National Border Patrol Council's Del Rio chapter, referring to people in the thousands.
In early August, Border Patrol agents stationed in this remote part of south-central Texas were encountering 1,000 migrants who illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the United States in this region daily.
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Migrants who made it across in this specific area would walk a short distance to pass underneath the Acuña - Del Rio International Bridge, where overhead vehicles and pedestrians must pass through Customs and Border Protection inspection before being admitted into the country.
At the start of this week, a couple of thousand migrants began crossing and accumulating each day underneath the bridge, where they would wait to surrender to Border Patrol and be taken to a federal holding station for processing and likely released into the U.S.
However, because the Border Patrol was so short-staffed prior to this week, Anfinsen said, "there are some days where some stations have zero agents in the field except for transport" vehicles that take migrants to holding stations, limiting the ability to move and process as many people are arriving.
Now, the number of people crossing and making it to the bridge, which is on city land, is out of control.
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"You go down there, and it kind of takes your breath away just when you — when you see it," Anfinsen said.
CBP, which oversees the ports of entry and the Border Patrol, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Original Location: 12,000 migrants wait under Del Rio bridge to surrender to Border Patrol
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