Following his reporting on President Biden's border crisis in Del Rio, Texas last week, Townhall's Julio Rosas is now on the ground in the next border sector likely to be overrun by illegal immigrants: Yuma, Arizona.
While a majority of the attention remains along the Rio Grande in Texas, Julio — one of the first on the scene this week — has captured the growing number of migrants already illegally crossing into the United States in the southwestern Arizona city where the Colorado River loosely traces the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biggest group I’ve seen so far today illegally crossing into the US. A bus dropped them off but Mexican police responded and stopped some of them. The rest made it across the river. pic.twitter.com/rjPHjLq0Cu
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2021
Among those crossing illegally into the United States are, somewhat unbelievably, individuals from Uzbekistan — a country some 7,000 miles away from Yuma. "A first," for Julio who's spent months covering the surging illegal immigration across America's southwestern border.
This family that just crossed the Colorado River told me they’re from Uzbekistan, that’s a first one for me. pic.twitter.com/YPzfQdcP87
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2021
Three adult males who illegally crossed into the US here in Yuma showed me their Uzbekistan passports. They turned themselves in to the BP agent who was by the gap in the border wall. pic.twitter.com/94z4UoFQwU
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2021
Those crossing illegally into the United States and Yuma, Arizona at this point — as Julio explains — is due to the Colorado River's water not being as deep by the Morelos Dam, making crossing into the U.S. somewhat easier and less hazardous.
The reason why this area is a popular crossing spot is bc the river is low by the dam. This group who said they’re from Nicaragua were lead by a coyote. No Border Patrol was around at first due to lack of manpower, but a BP van came by shortly after they crossed. pic.twitter.com/x7w7LjaJ9d
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2021
Gaps in the physical border wall — on which construction began under President Trump but stopped by President Biden — also make the location a target for illegal immigrants and the coyotes that bring them near the border. Biden's decision to halt construction of the wall is one of many policies that spurred the surge in illegal immigration.
As Julio also notes, a serious lack of manpower exists along Yuma's international border meaning groups of people are able to slip across unnoticed where Border Patrol doesn't have personnel. Agents even joked that Julio's reporting at the border means he's "often the only person 'patrolling' the river."
Border Patrol is severely undermanned in the Yuma Sector. Source told me there is no agent actively patrolling between where I am by the dam and to the west until reaching the city of Calexico, CA. They sort of joked by saying I’m often the only person “patrolling” the river.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) October 7, 2021
See here, here, and here for Julio's latest reporting from the border in Yuma.