Lower Valley residents reporting a lot more activity at border fence

There have been more than 31,000 apprehensions this fiscal year in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector alone, an increase of about 20 percent from last year.

Recently, residents in the Lower Valley have been reaching out to ABC-7, saying they’re seeing more and more activity near the border fence.

Christine Flores, reached out to ABC-7 after she snapped several photos of people hopping the border fence near her son’s school bus stop. Flores waits for her four-year-old son at Shawver Park after he is released from Ysleta Pre-K.

The park is yards away from the border fence near Yarbrough.

Last week, Flores snapped photos that show several people gathered at the base of the fence on the Mexican side and a person at the top of the fence.

Flores said this was a group of kids and teenagers. She said that in the four months that she’s been dropping her son off there, she had never seen anything like that until last week.

“To me, what was surprising was 3:30 in the afternoon. People are climbing and also the large group of people, most of them look like young kids. I don’t know the story behind all of it, but yeah, it’s just wow. Something that I thought was noteworthy,” said Christine Perez, who told ABC-7 she witnessed people hopping the border fence.

A second ABC-7 viewer said she has seen the activity for the past three days. “I passed through here (Fonseca and the Border Highway) for work. It’s been 3 days and these are the same people trying to cross. I haven’t seen any Border Patrol agents trying to detain them or (leading) them to a safe place. There’s kids. They are cold and screaming for help. So heartbreaking,” said Rachel Garcia Enriquez.

ABC-7 asked Border Patrol officials whether they’ve seen an increase in border crossers in that particular area. Coming up on ABC-7 at 10, the logistical challenge the Border Patrol says makes focusing on this area so difficult.