By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Update at 6:52 p.m. Sunday —
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said the 200 immigrants under the city’s international bridge have been removed for processing by the Border Patrol.
Martinez told the 830 Times the immigrants were gone at 4 p.m. Sunday.
The sheriff added his contacts in Mexico said officials are establishing checkpoints in Ciudad Acuña and “starting to reject any people coming in from other countries.”
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Original posting — Immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande illegally are again gathering underneath the Del Rio International Bridge, and city and county officials this morning said they are keeping an eye on the situation.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the 830 Times there are about 200 immigrants who have gathered under the bridge as of noon today.
“I’ve spoken with the Border Patrol, and they have told me that they are going to try and move those individuals out of there by the end of the day,” Martinez said.
Martinez said he will have some deputies maintain patrols in the area on the north side of the border fence, but he said they will not go beyond the fence, at least for now.
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. said he, too, is keeping an eye on what’s happening under the bridge.
“We’ll be making some calls, but right now we’re just going to be monitoring the situation,” Owens said.
Interim City Manager John Sheedy said he has heard the same things as the sheriff and county judge.
“All I know is that there are approximately 200 (persons) under the bridge and that Border Patrol is engaged in efforts to remove them. I don’t have any further information as to intel on any expected additional arrivals,” Sheedy said in a text message.
In September, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 immigrants who crossed the border illegally, many of them Haitians, camped underneath the Del Rio International Bridge for more than a week. A combined city, county, state and federal effort eventually moved those immigrants out of the Del Rio area.
Since then, local officials have worried aloud about reports from the interior of Mexico that thousands more migrants are making their way through that country in an effort to reach the U.S.-Mexico border. No one, though, can predict where those immigrants might cross.
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