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The desperation to reach the United States has pushed dozens of migrants to look for new ways to achieve an illegal crossing and now they use foreign vehicles to cross the border between the Mexican Tijuana and the American San Ysidro.
According to the Secretary of Public Safety and Municipal Citizen Protection (SSPCM), Pedro Cruz Camarena, in the last two weeks they have detected between 6 and 12 vehicles per day in which people are transported trying to reach the United States.
He explained that the modality is to acquire a vehicle with California plates that are sold at low costs in Tijuana, to later try to evade the security filters at the San Ysidro border crossing. However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents detect them as they are family units.
Cruz Camarena expressed to the local press that this action has generated a delay in the border crossings in vehicles, since the CBP agents concentrate on checking the documentation of everyone who travels to the neighboring country.
“They are mostly immigrants of Russian, Venezuelan or Honduran origin,” assured the official, who added that they have also detected these groups staying in hotels in the downtown area of the city of Tijuana.
He explained that when the migrants are discovered in their attempt to cross the border, the unit is confiscated and sent to a municipal trailer, while the migrants are taken to a shelter or to the National Migration Institute (NMI).
Finally, the police chief emphasized that there is constant coordination between the Tijuana police and CBP, as they carry out operations in the vicinity of the metal wall that divides Mexico and the United States.
According to Customs and Border Protection data, 172,331 undocumented migrants were intercepted in March, the highest monthly level in two decades.
