--- title: A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border | TIME description: TIME's Maya Rhodan spent a day with US Customs and Border Patrol in McAllen, TX, the busiest sector of the southern border. canonical: https://time.com/video/QFIeKVYp/ og:title: A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border og:description: TIME's Maya Rhodan spent a day with US Customs and Border Patrol in McAllen, TX, the busiest sector of the southern border. og:url: https://time.com/video/QFIeKVYp/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QFIeKVYp/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border twitter:description: TIME's Maya Rhodan spent a day with US Customs and Border Patrol in McAllen, TX, the busiest sector of the southern border. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QFIeKVYp/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border [Watch (HLS stream): A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QFIeKVYp.m3u8) (8:56)  _Published 2018-11-14. TIME's Maya Rhodan spent a day with US Customs and Border Patrol in McAllen, TX, the busiest sector of the southern border._ --- Jul 28, 2023 4:18 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [CBP Investigating Offensive Border Patrol Facebook Group Activity](/video/Veo8fjb7/) ### CBP Investigating Offensive Border Patrol Facebook Group Activity [Listen to Audio of Children Separated From Their Parents Inside Border Patrol Facilities](/video/Eb6XO4AV/) ### Listen to Audio of Children Separated From Their Parents Inside Border Patrol Facilities [Border Patrol Agent Detains 2 U.S. Citizens for Speaking Spanish](/video/JFz2Ayin/) ### Border Patrol Agent Detains 2 U.S. Citizens for Speaking Spanish --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] They haven't made landfall on that side, right? There's only two in teh raft and they're going back south. 10- 4, we're standing by here at the levee with officers. [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] The Rio Grande Valley is the busiest sector of the US Mexico border. On average, Customs and Border Patrol agents here apprehend more than 500 migrants per day. [ MUSIC ] [ UNKNOWN ] got around [ UNKNOWN ] already. He dropped off the bodies and it's a possibility that they might be just directly over here. As the shift begins, agents have tracked the raft across the river at dawn. And are ready to apprehend the group of migrants who are making their way through the brush. [ MUSIC ] You still have eyes on them? Hey guys they took that road just along the big houses [ SOUND ] [ NOISE ] Okay. 10- 4. Be there in a few. All these officers here at the station, they're well- versed in tracking and they know the area really well. [ SOUND ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ SOUND ] I've got two here! [ SOUND ] They're right here! Sit down! They're going south, they're going south here. [ SOUND ] [ SOUND ] These are juveniles from right across the border time. [ SOUND ] Head to the right. They use the juveniles to guide them through the brush. The state of Texas will not prosecute them, so the cartels know that and they exploit them. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ SOUND ] This guy wearing shorts is probably a little guide as well. He is probably going to be from Reynosa, right here across the border. [ UNKNOWN ] [ NOISE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] This gentleman at the end, he had already made it, he was living in Houston with his family, but he is claiming he had a death in the family so he went back. He had been trying four or five times already to come back Had been caught. If I would have been him I wouldn't have gone back. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] We are going to meet up with our transport unit from here. And then they will be sent back to the, to the processing center. And then we will start to set up for another group. [ MUSIC ] Here today, we have about 157, 000. And 600 apprehensions. 51 % are family units and unaccompanied children. This group of people are turning themselves in to us. And then the 49 are the groups of people that are trying to avoid the Border Patrol. Human smugglers, narcotics smugglers, and economic migrants as well. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] In the late morning a call comes in about a group of migrants who are related. They call it a family unit, who've turned themselves in at the border fence. Hey, call for Alpha 2. 10- 4. How many Folks do you have there? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Five. Okay ten four. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] How many days ago did you leave? About 15, 16 days. And [ FOREIGN ] Well in my case, I'm being persecuted and receiving death threats. They killed my brother four months ago. With a gunshot. [ CRYING ] She said her brother was killed four months ago. [ FOREIGN ] There was no justice, I continue to be persecuted, get death threats. She's been threatened. [ FOREIGN ] Why was your brother assassinated? [ FOREIGN ] Well, on the day of the protest, the 20th of April, [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] The migrants will now be sent to a privately run detention center. Following the end of the zero tolerance policy which controversially separated parents from children agents here say crossings have skyrocketed. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So this is the first time ever In the Border Patrol that we have two very distinct mission sets. You have the border security piece, and then you have this other humanitarian type of mission, where it's taken a lot of logistical effort to deal with. When we At a consequence to the illegal entry, people think twice about entering. I see the toll that the situation has taken on people. The immigration laws and polices that we have right now Are being exploited by the criminal organizations that are making money by smuggling a population that is not deportable at this time under this legal framework. I think, at some point, Congress is going to have to find a way to work together and pass immigration reform. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Later that afternoon, agents see another family unit preparing to cross the Rio Grande. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] The story almost always ends the same way. As the migrants will turn themselves in when they make landfall. All part of a seemingly endless game of cat and mouse with human lives caught in the middle. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Day With Customs And Border Patrol At The Busiest Sector of the US Mexico Border","description":"TIME's Maya Rhodan spent a day with US Customs and Border Patrol in McAllen, TX, the busiest sector of the southern border. 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