Overlooked during the Del Rio bridge crisis but potentially an even hotter hotspot is an area near Yuma, Arizona, called–for obvious reasons–“the Gap.”
Known to the Haitians who use it as le Trou, the Gap is a break in the border fence close to the Morelos Dam allowing easy crossing of the Colorado River from the Mexican town of Los Algodones. It is representative of our border policy as a whole: half-hearted and full of holes.
Illegal border crossings at this point have increased 2,399.6 percent over last year, with up to 900 people now coming across each day. The Border Patrol says that in August, 17,000 migrants crossed here compared with only 694 in August 2020. During the weekend of September 20, more than 2,400 migrants were apprehended.
Border Patrol officer Vincent Dulesky told the Daily Mail that until recently most of the arrivals had come from the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, but that increasing numbers of Haitians have now begun to cross. During the Daily Mail visit, most of the new arrivals were Haitians.
The Mail reporter spoke with various of the migrants, including one who identified himself as Jamal, who had come along with his wife Bianca and three-year-old daughter Jacquentia.
“We are desperate for a good life for our daughter,” said Jamal. “We spent all our money to come. It’s bad in Haiti – it’s dangerous and violent with gangs. We can’t live there.”
Having said that, Jamal admitted he and his family had actually come from Chile, but “we heard the border was open so we went to Mexicali and then came here.”
Daily Mail describes what they saw this way:
[We witnessed] a stream of people coming through at the rate of 10 to 20 every half hour. The routine never varied. First, migrants would climb down a slope leading to the Morelos Dam. . . . Then, they would scramble past a sluice gate running alongside the dam, crossing into the US halfway before continuing up to the Gap and out into the fields. . . . Most immediately surrendered to Border Patrol but others, mainly single men and women who face being thrown out instantly under Title 42, attempted to slip away through the fields.
According to agents, the Title 42 COVID restriction is not as much a barrier to the would-be immigrants’ plans as one might think. While it causes some migrants–individuals only; families are excluded–to be dropped back onto the Mexican side, it doesn’t permanently bar them. Therefore, agents find themselves arresting the same people over and over. Eventually, they get through.
One migrant said, “We had heard of The Gap and people said this is the place to come.”
Lots of people are saying it and lots are coming.
For more, see the Daily Mail website.