Hundreds of Cuban migrants reportedly tried to force their way into the United States along the border of El Paso, Texas, prompting U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deploy a Special Response Team to stop the attempt.
According to El Paso Times, over 200 migrants attempted to cross the El Paso-Juarez border bridge by force after a rumor spread that they would be allowed to cross the border into the United States.
As they approached the border bridge over the Rio Grande, several migrants chanted “Biden, Biden,” a reference to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, the Diario de Juarez newspaper reported.
The migrants had apparently heard a false rumor that they would be allowed to enter the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents blocked the bridge Tuesday night in an effort to stop the sudden surge of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
CBP officers and a Special Response Team were sent to the scene “to deter any potential large scale incursion of people who had gathered in Mexico earlier in the evening,” said Roger Maier, an agency spokesman.
The Paso Del Norte Bridge, also called the Santa Fe Bridge, was forced to stop pedestrian and vehicle border crossings overnight
After 10 hours, the crowd reportedly dispersed prior to dawn Wednesday, allowing bridge traffic to return to normal.
Before entering the United States, asylum seekers are required to attend a hearing in front of a U.S. immigration judge, according to the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
But Migrants told the El Heraldo de Juarez that they were tired of waiting in Juarez where they were jobless and victimized. The city has had over 1,600 homicides in 2020 and is widely known as one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico.
“The migrants railed against Mexico, pointing out that they are tired of receiving mistreatment and having their rights violated by police authorities, so they prefer to wait on the American side,” the Mexican outlet reported.
Mexican border patrol agents also attempted to talk migrants into finding shelter as temperatures dipped below freezing, but many refused to leave.
“We are going through many terrible things that nobody imagines, there is a lot to say about the Municipal Police that extort us, the thugs, the mistreatment of jobs; we are not complaining about the government, the president, we are very grateful to the country, ” one of the Cuban migrants told Diario.mx.
