Along the Rio Grande, “illegal immigration” is not just a clash of protests and slogans, but a sweaty battle of wits between smugglers who take money to bring poor families across the border and federal agents who try to stop them.
The reality of that battle was captured Monday when ABC News correspondent Tom Llamas and a crew rode for a day with Border Patrol Agent Robert Rodriguez near McAllen, Texas, ABC reported.
What ABC and its crew saw were not facts and figures, but a hot, tired collection of illegal immigrants who were dumped on the north shore of the Rio Grande by a smuggler who ran as soon as Rodriguez spotted the group.
Rodriguez chased the smuggler, who got into a small inflatable boat and rowed frantically south.
"Look, there's a smuggler."@TomLlamasABC was embedded with a Customs and Border Protection agent when they discovered an alleged smuggler along the Mexico border in an inflatable raft on the Rio Grande. https://t.co/7PQ61gbnRP pic.twitter.com/rfG2HJFPiN
— ABC News (@ABC) June 25, 2018
“I can’t go into the river to apprehend him,” Rodriguez said. “I assure you he was a smuggler. No shirt on and ready to jump back into the river.”
Although the group of illegal immigrants that drew Rodriguez’s attention dispersed while he was chasing the smuggler, he later caught up with them as they walked along a dirt road and took the group into custody. – READ MORE
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