In the first week of May, the White House sent a message to migrants: “The border is not open.” However, the rhetoric does not match reality, as exclusive images from the New York Post(NYP) show more than a hundred completely open border gates that allow the entry of thousands of migrants per day through the Arizona border.
“Thousands of migrants are flowing across the US border in Arizona every day — literally through open floodgates that have made the Tucson post the busiest point of illegal entry into the country,” the NYP reported Tuesday.
According to US authorities, the excuse for opening these 114 floodgates along the Arizona border is “to allow water to flow freely during the annual monsoon season and for the migration of an endangered species of antelope,” reads the article in the New York tabloid, which opened its front page today with a blunt sentence: “Floodgates are open (literally!).”
Today's cover: Open floodgates at Arizona border allow thousands of migrants to walk into the country https://t.co/16wYmTUnGY pic.twitter.com/lCuA1MMcY4
— New York Post (@nypost) August 22, 2023
In the videos published by the NYP, dozens of migrants can be seen passing through the Arizona border without problems, giving the impression that there is no control for anyone crossing on foot through those specific points.
“We thought the agents were going to tell us something,” said one Ecuadorian migrant. “But we just walked in.”
“It was so easy to get into the US,” said another migrant from Cuba. “Nothing like our journey through Mexico. That part was hard. (...) I thought there was going to be more security.”
According to the NYP, the border gates have been open for about two months, contradicting the White House’s claim that the border is closed.
Some 42,000 migrants reportedly entered the United States through the Tucson, AZ border post last month.
The state became the busiest illegal crossing point in the United States.
That’s a massive jump from June’s numbers when 27,294 migrants entered Tucson.
This access point now far surpasses the traditionally busier border posts of El Paso and Laredo, Texas, where 24,352 and 26,627 crossings were recorded in July, respectively.
This opening of the floodgates is reportedly being exploited by the cartels in the area, who take migrants by the busload to the gates and leave them there so that they can enter the United States as if they were some sort of casual tourists.
The migrants, in theory, should turn themselves in to the border agents after crossing the wall and request asylum.
Border Patrol agents call these migrants “give-ups.”
The Border Patrol also admitted in a statement to the New York Post that it is responsible for the controversial opening of floodgates.
“USBP makes the final decision on opening gates based on operational conditions and forecasted weather,” the agency said.
Apparently displeased with the move, Border Patrol sources told the NYP that requests to open the border gates came from various federal agencies, including the National Park Service.
“We tried to shut the gates, but the order came down that we had to leave them open,” one of the sources said. “You wouldn’t leave the front door of your house open in a bad neighborhood.”
