U.S. Border Patrol agents grapple with sudden surge of Central American migrants

Seconds after the radio crackled and the government SUVs sped into the darkness, Border Patrol agents sprinted through the brush and toward the border in an all-too-familiar pursuit of drug smugglers.

“They dropped their bundles of narcotics and went back into Mexico,” said agent Marlene Castro, sounding disappointed after racing through a pitch-black clearing outside Rio Grande City. Still, on this recent night, agents would recover 66 pounds of marijuana with a street value of roughly $53,000.

But chasing drug smugglers wasn’t the only thing keeping them busy.

 

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