PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Breitbart Texas visited the Mexican sister city to Eagle Pass, Texas, to witness the daily flow of migrants using the Biden administration’s CBP One App to cross the Camino Real International Bridge. The crossings occur as the State of Texas continues to fortify the recently seized Shelby Park below.
The scheduled crossings take place twice a day with little fanfare and are part of a program that sees up to 1,450 migrants admitted each day under the Biden Administration’s use of humanitarian parole to reduce river and land border crossings between ports of entry.
Breitbart Texas visited the office of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) to speak with officials about the program. A female INM officer refused to provide any information on the program, including the number of migrants admitted under the CBP One App or crossing times. The officer referred Breitbart Texas to the City of Piedras Negras’ Grupo Enlace, which translates to liaison group in English. The liaison group serves as an intermediary with INM and coordinates the daily northbound flow of migrants into the United States at the Camino Real International Bridge.
Breitbart TexasIn a similar secretive fashion, members of the Grupo Enlace, refused to provide any information about the program. Officials, instead, encouraged Breitbart Texas to leave the area for operational reasons, where the migrants would eventually be led into the United States from Mexico. A short distance from where the liaison group staged their operations, the first of two daily crossings of CBP One App migrants being paroled into the United States took place in the early afternoon.
As the video above shows, the first group of approximately 30 migrants arrived for their journey into Eagle Pass, walking the bridge above the fortifications taking place at the city park below. The migrants, most eerily silent, refused to engage with Breitbart Texas. Several of those who did speak stated they were from Colombia and Venezuela. Others stared directly ahead as if coached not to speak to the media. In contrast, migrants making landfall along the riverbank after illegally crossing between ports of entry proudly proclaim their nationality and, in some cases, unfurl flags from their home country on the banks of the Rio Grande.
A total of 60 migrants in two groups cross daily into the United States using the Eagle Pass Camino Real Bridge. The migrants who spent days and hours online hoping to schedule one of the 1,450 available appointments have received no significant vetting in comparison to those who cross illegally below. According to a source within CBP, the most basic of litmus tests for a qualifying asylum claim, the credible fear interview, is not part of the vetting process. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, tells Breitbart Texas that the only difference between those who cross through the bridge and those who attempt to ford the Rio Grande is the luck of successfully receiving one of the 1,450 appointments granted daily.
The limitation of 60 migrants per day in Eagle Pass is commensurate with the Port of Entry’s ability to process the migrants with minimal disruption to legal trade and travel at the small port. According to CBP, individuals who present at one of eight POEs (Nogales, Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, El Paso, Calexico, and San Ysidro) with CBP One appointments along the Southwest Border are vetted and processed, which includes biographic and biometric security vetting and background screening.
Within hours, Thursday’s group of migrants exited the Camino Real Port of Entry and were free to travel anywhere within the United States as they await the disposition of their asylum claims. The migrants paroled into the United States using the application are immediately eligible to apply for work authorization.
The pace of admissions for this program, which the Department of Homeland Security refers to as a “legal pathway” for entry, is more than 500,000 annually, exceeding migrant apprehension numbers for all of fiscal year 2020, President Donald Trump’s last full year in office. The program is used to admit migrants from a host of countries around the world. The CBP source who spoke to Breitbart Texas says the program has been used not only by Venezuelans, Cubans, Colombians, and Haitians but also by migrants from outside the hemisphere. It is also used to admit Mexican nationals at an increasingly greater frequency than all other nationalities, according to the source.
As the border slowdown continues in Eagle Pass as the result of increased law enforcement and military operations in Mexico, one likely dividend to compensate President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for the enhanced efforts may be an increase in Mexican migrant admissions through the CBP One App. According to Mexico’s Central Bank, remittances sent to Mexico by migrants in the United States in 2023 totaled more than $63 billion dollars and account for approximately four percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
