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THE 13 PEOPLE killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the US had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials have said.
Surveillance video showed a Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban drive through the opening early on Tuesday, said Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief.
The video has not been publicly released as it is part of an ongoing investigation.
The Suburban, carrying 19 people, caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate highway after entering the US. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
The Expedition crammed with 25 people continued on, and a tractor-trailer struck it a short time later. Ten of the 13 killed in that crash have been identified as Mexican citizens. The Border Patrol said its agents were not pursuing the vehicle before the wreck.
The opening in the fence was some 30 miles east of the crash in the heart of California’s Imperial Valley, a major farming region now at the height of a harvest that provides large amounts of vegetables to US supermarkets.
It was made of steel bollards that were built before former President Donald Trump blanketed much of the border with taller barriers that go deeper into the ground.
Photos show a panel of eight steel poles was lifted out and left on the ground in the desert next to an old tire and other debris.
“Human smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life,” Bovino said.
“Those who may be contemplating crossing the border illegally should pause to think of the dangers that all too often end in tragedy, tragedies our Border Patrol Agents and first responders are unfortunately very familiar with.”
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Very sad, people just looking to work and provide for their families
@Dermot McL: with one vehicle catching fire and then the other crashing it was certainly a doomed mission .life must be so desperate on one side if your willing to get into an suv over 20 people or attempt to swim the rio grand. That or they were seriously mis sold the ideology of the American dream. Very sad indeed., some as young as 15.
@Lisa Quinn: you’re..ill do it myself, don’t worry pedants
@Dermot McL: really
@Lisa Quinn: comma after ‘worry.’
@Lisa Quinn: I’ll – just saying!
@Earth Traveller: thanks a mil for looking after me. I’ll get you to proof read future emails and texts and comments, obituaries too
@John Mulligan: you sure?
@Lisa Quinn: if we’re going full pedant, the river is in fact called the Rio Grande. Your welcome
@Lisa Quinn: if we’re going full pedant, the river is in fact called the Rio Grande. Your welcome
@Lisa Quinn: if we’re going full pedant, the river is in fact called the Rio Grande. Your welcome
@Drunk in Dublin: You’re*
@Margaret Mcgarry: really
@Drunk in Dublin: ok..just the once is fine.just bullying now
@Peter Denham: ha thanks
Build it long, Build it high, build it wide, with a big door in the middle for those wanting to come to America… Legally.
@Asid: go eat yourself
Wouldn’t have happened on Trumps watch
@Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin: why
@Colm Vambeck: Because Trump knew this was a problem & wanted to fix it, unlike Sleepy Joe, sitting on his commode wondering what to do….. So he bombed Syria instead.
@Martin Galvin: your learning faculties are extremely limited
@Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin: this did happen on trump’s watch, several times. Thousands of people illegally crossed the border and were killed during his one term. This happens all the time.
@Eoin Ó Cuinneagáin: errrr that’s his “unbreachable wall” fence thing.
@Drunk in Dublin: How apt …. A dead sheep’s skull as your profile pic….
@Martin Galvin: How apt, a drawing of a person with a forehead too small to house a brain as your profile pic…
This is what happens when u don’t build a proper wall, let’s see where the usa are in 4 years time after the 78 year old has made his mark, its falling apart already, what happened to how he was going to fix the covid situation, farcical
@Hugo Bugo: why don’t you just cry about your own little island as you clearly don’t know what’s actually going on in the USA.
@Hugo Bugo: would you stop!! A wall would never work. It was a glory trip.
Signing an executive order to cancel funding for the wall is starting to come back and may very well be biting him in the you know where
@Paul: the brazils?
have your say