Border gates in Arizona remain open —letting in thousands

August 24, 2023

The floodgates to the US are still open and allowing a steady flow of migrants in — but not letting much rainwater out.

Three days after The Post exposed 114 gates in the Arizona border wall have been welded wide open, allowing thousands to illegally enter the US, nothing has changed.

New images taken Thursday show brazen human smugglers in a dark-colored van and a white SUV pull up and shamelessly drop migrants on the Mexican side of the border.

They then escort them through the open gates near Lukeville, Arizona, illegally entering the country.

“I saw your story about the floodgates being open; that’s exactly what’s happening,” one US Border Patrol agent anonymously told The Post, referring to our exclusive reporting.

The Border Patrol admitted it was responsible for making the decision to open the floodgates, to ease floodwaters which can damage the structure of the wall — which is already a porous structure — during monsoon season, which can hit any time between mid-June and September in Southern Arizona.

A smuggler in a dark-colored van pulls up the US border wall to drop off illegal immigrants.

Each border gate is about 12 feet tall and has several doors.

Sources told The Post how the doors have been open since June, even though the National Weather Service told the agency the rainy season would start later this year.

“We provide briefings for Border Patrol,” said Gigi Giralte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “We were able to determine that we were going to have a later start to the monsoon season.”

There was no rain until mid-July, Giralte said, meaning the gates were open for at least 30 days when anyone was able to walk through.

This year’s monsoon season has also been milder than normal with only 1.6 inches of rain falling in the area since July 15. The average is usually higher, with at least 1.8 inches by now.

Hurricane Hilary — which hit California at the beginning of the week — dropped up to 10 inches of rain in one day, which caused flash flooding.

Agents tried to shut the gates to stop illegal border crossings, but agency supervisors instead ordered that the gates be welded open to prevent the rank-and-file from closing the gates.

US Border Patrol agents are drastically understaffed in this part of the border, with one agent often watching over dozens of migrants by themselves.

In this isolated part of the border, 2.5 hours from Tucson, and in the middle of nowhere, migrants outnumber agents who detain people from countries all over the world once they’ve walked through the gates.

“Seven or eight months ago, we started getting these big (migrant) groups from all over, and it’s just been non-stop since then,” a Border Patrol source told The Post. “Then they opened these gates and it’s just gotten worse.”

On average 1,400 migrants a day are crossing into Arizona illegally, US government statistics show.

Last month 42,561 migrants were encountered in the Tuscon sector, which includes Lukeville, making the region the number one hot spot in the entire nation for illegal entries and the nation’s busiest border crossing.

Migrants who enter through the open gates are not trying to hide from Border Patrol. Instead, they seek out agents so they can turn themselves in and try to claim asylum.

Almost all of the migrant agents are encountering in this remote stretch of the Grand Canyon State are migrants who walk through the openings in the wall, find an agent and turn themselves in with hopes of being granted asylum.

Those who pass an interview to begin the asylum process will then be released into the US with a court date.

Almost all of the migrants end up traveling to other parts of the US. On Tuesday, The Post witnessed migrants who had crossed the border only days before with plane tickets to Boston and Ohio at Tucson International Airport.

Addressing the reason for opening the floodgates, Customs and Border Protection said: “High water flow combined with excessive sediment and debris buildup can stress or comprise the design integrity of the barrier.

“Once the rain or flood event is over and the debris and sediment are removed, the gates can be closed and secured.”

Two vehicles driven by cartel smugglers drive away from the open border wall after dropping off migrants.

About 1,300 migrants enter the nation through the Tucson sector every day, according to the Border Patrol.

The union that represents the agents has called on the department to close the gates.

“In my opinion and in the Border Patrol agent’s opinion, those gates should never come open,” said National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.

Neither the Border Patrol or its parent agency, US Customs and Border Protection responded to The Post’s request as to when the gates might be shut.