Thousands of asylum seekers cross from Mexico to Eagle Pass, Texas
A family burrows under razor wire on the U.S. side of the border after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to Eagle Pass, Texas. They were turned back by a National Guardsman.
“Before, we would hear rumors, [but] nothing happened,” Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said. “But this time something happened.”
Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. signed a disaster declaration for the city Wednesday evening. In response, the U.S. Department of Defense has sent 800 more active-duty troops to Eagle Pass to assist with the processing of migrants, adding to 2,500 National Guard members there. Border holding facilities are expanding by 3,250 people to nearly 23,000 and extending home surveillance nationwide for families awaiting initial asylum screenings.
A group of people struggle against the tide as they cross the Rio Grande on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
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People who crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. are held Saturday at a border patrol processing center located below the Eagle Pass International Bridge in Texas.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
People who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border wait to board buses at a border patrol processing center Saturday in Eagle Pass, Texas, along the banks of the Rio Grande.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
People who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border are led, single file, to a border patrol processing center Saturday in Eagle Pass, Texas, along the banks of the Rio Grande.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
People who crossed the Rio Grande on Saturday look for a way through razor wire on the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Migrants struggle to cross the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Friday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Migrants wade across the Rio Grande from Mexico toward Eagle Pass, Texas.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds of migrants walk to a U.S. Border Patrol staging area to be loaded into vans and transported to a processing center.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
A man pleads with a National Guard member to be allowed to enter the U.S. after crossing the Rio Grande and burrowing through razor wire on the riverbank in Eagle Pass. He was turned away.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Migrants gather behind razor wire after crossing the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Hundreds of migrant men wait to be transported by U.S. Border Patrol from a holding area near the Rio Grande.
Robert Gauthier has been with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. He was the photographer for a project detailing the failings of an L.A. public hospital that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Before The Times, Gauthier worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Escondido Times-Advocate and the Bernardo News in San Diego County, his hometown.
