An existing wall at border of Mexico. Photo via Congress.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

They built the walls, but they’re not working as planned.

Soldiers managed to destroy walls in San Diego. Smugglers are doing the same.

Now Border Patrol is asking contractors for ways to “leapfrog current technology to dramatically improve efficacy,” Arizona Public Media reports.

Could paint make it easier to see people breaching walls? What about sensors? They’re among the questions being barnstormed to make the walls more effective.

By the end of the year, the U.S. government has a goal of building 450 miles of walls. So far, it has built about 182 miles.

But the walls are being breached almost as quickly as they’re being built.

Border Patrol declined to comment.

Border Patrol agent makes an arrest. Photo via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Mexicans who cross illegally into the U.S. are being sent to Mexico City, Border Patrol said Tuesday, citing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

In the past, Mexicans caught crossing into the U.S. illegally were usually sent back to border cities.

The move comes on the same day that CDC extended its policy to end asylum at the border, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Mexicans who illegally cross into the U.S. will now be held until they are expatriated to Mexico City.

Border Patrol leaders said the change was in response to an increase in Mexicans trying to cross into the U.S. Some of those caught crossing the border were repeat offenders, Border Patrol said.

“The overarching goal of these repatriation flights is to reduce the spread of COVID-19 into the U.S. and reduce the strain on Mexico’s resources along the border,” Border Patrol said in a statement.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The first ICE detainee to die from the coronavirus was a 57-year-old El Salvador man who had become ill at the Otay Messa Detention Center in San Diego.

“He contracted (Covid-19) at the facility,” the senior immigration official told CNN. “As soon as he tested positive he was sent to the hospital. He died there.”

Immigration rights groups have filed lawsuits against ICE, arguing the facilities are not adequately protecting detainees from the deadly coronavirus.

“The heartbreaking tragedy at Otay Mesa could have been prevented had US immigration officials heeded the recommendations of medical experts and acted in time,” Dr. Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement Wednesday. “Thousands of doctors, advocates, and even the former acting head of ICE have been sounding the alarm for months about the grave risks of immigration detention amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government cannot say it did not know this would happen.”

Six weeks ago, ICE announced its first detainee to test positive for COVID-19.

Nearly half of the ICE detainees tested so far – 705 – have a confirmed infection, according to ICE.

ICE official, via ICE.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

ICE is holding fewer migrants at three family detention centers, where the numbers declined 826 last week, a 39% decline, a federal judge said during a court hearing Monday.

The three facilities hold families in Texas and Pennsylvania, and federal authorities are doing a better job following CDC guidelines, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., said, according to The Washington Post.

The judge, who is considering a request to release families from the detention facilities, ordered ICE to disclose more information about COVID-19 testing and its supplies to help sick people.

“I don’t think . . . you’ve made the showing that [bulk] release is necessary at this point,” Boasberg told attorneys for assisting migrant families seeking asylum. “But what I am interested in is . . . particular categories of information that you seek, and I think requiring the government to provide that information would both benefit this litigation, but would also benefit your clients.”

ICE says none of the detainees has tested positive for the virus.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

More than 30 ICE detainees have tested positive for the coronavirus, and immigration advocates are worried it’s going to get a lot worse.

Detainees with confirmed infections “have been quarantined and are receiving care,” ICE said in a statement to The Washington Post, and people exposed to them “are being monitored for symptoms.”

Civil rights group and immigration advocates are urging ICE to release the detainees before the spread gets worse. Without the ability to socially distance, detainees are especially at risk, they say.

Eleven staffers at detention facilities also have tested positive in Colorado, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Illegal immigration along the southern border has declined during the coronavirus outbreak.

About 4,200 migrants were identified trying to illegally entered the U.S. last week, a nearly 60% decrease over the previous week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Border Patrol recently instituted a practice of quickly deporting undocumented immigrants to protect agents from the coronavirus.

CBP on Monday disclosed that 160 of its employees have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Construction on the border wall has continued despite coronavirus fears, raising concern from residents in border cities.

An existing wall at border of Mexico. Photo via Congress.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Construction on the wall on the Arizona border with Mexico has not stopped as the coronavirus outbreak spreads rapidly across the U.S.

Work crews are filling up motels, Airbnbs and mobile home camps in the town of Ajo, while nonessential construction has stopped in most of the country, The New York Times reports.

The theory is that the wall will prevent the spread of the virus from Mexico to the U.S., even though health experts are skeptical.

In the meantime, residents in Ajo are worried that the influx of workers make them more susceptive to the coronavirus.

“This administration’s priority is to get the wall done. The rest of us might as well be damned,” Ajo resident Maria Singleton told the Times.

According to an Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Raini Brunson, the agency is following “government and CDC guidelines” as construction increases.

“As the guidance changes, decisions will be made as to how contractor employees will be affected,” Brunson added.

Border Patrol agent makes an arrest. Photo via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A record number of undocumented immigrants were arrested by Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector so far this year.

The sector, which covers 210 miles of land between the Rio Grand River and Lake Amistad in Texas, apprehended migrants from more than 30 countries since Oct. 1, more than twice the number this time last year, The Epoch Times reports.

“The apprehension of migrants from countries such as Brazil, Haiti, China, and countries of Africa have increased significantly this fiscal year,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz said.

He added, “We continue to work with our law enforcement partners to combat threats in an effort to protect our country and the community.”