A video shot at a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall shows dozens of undocumented immigrants squeezing through a breach in the metal fence and running north into California.
YouTuber Andy Martin, aka ‘Mexican Andy,’ shot the video at California’s Border Field State Park, on the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Thursday at about 4pm.
In the dramatic clip, dozens of migrants can be seen gathering next to the border fence, waiting as someone appears to saw through the chain link fence behind the bollards. People can then be seen kicking at the chain link in an attempt to widen the gap enough for bodies to fit through.
As soon as there’s a big enough gap, the undocumented migrants squeeze through the hole and then run into the town of Imperial Beach, past a white Border Patrol truck that has its sirens blaring.
According to US Customs and Border Patrol San Diego, which tweeted out their own version of the video, the Central American migrants were able to ‘exploit the saltwater corrosion at the bollards’ to cut through the chain link fence.
Border Patrol officials said that there were actually two groups of migrants that crossed the border at the same time, from different ends of the state park, 10 News reported.
When the border patrol agent started to pursue one group, the other group pushed through. Additional agents were then called in to help round up the people who crossed through the border illegally.
Authorities said that 52 of the migrants — who hailed from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — that made it through the fence were captured following a two-hour foot chase involving multiple agents. Once in custody, they all claimed asylum.
The migrants included 27 families, 24 adults and one unaccompanied child.
Authorities believe that they caught everyone who breached the fence during the incident.