United States border officials are reportedly using an online chatroom to tell Mexican authorities when to let 100-150 illegal migrants at a time jump into the Rio Grande and swim across as a way to make processing their release into America easier, according to an eyewitness report.
Todd Bensman, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies stationed at the border, said the goal is to build a “controlled-flow system most often used, controversially, by Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, to facilitate mass illegal migration to the U.S. border rather than incur the expense and trouble of blocking it in those countries.”
Bensman blogged that while on the banks of the river this week, he noticed big crowds ready to cross but held back by Mexican authorities.
“At some sort of signal from the Mexican immigration officers,” he wrote, “a group of about 100-150 from the crowd would suddenly stand in unison and rush down the riverbank, past the immigration officers, and swim over to America.”
The signal, the Mexican officials told him, came from the U.S. side sent via Whatsapp.