US Border Patrol agents apprehend over 600 illegal 'aliens' in New Mexico

U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehend over 600 "illegal" migrants, primarily comprising Central American families and unaccompanied juveniles, from Sunland Park and Antelope Wells in New Mexico in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Agents encountered a group of what seemed to be over 400 illegal aliens in Sunland Park just after midnight. Border Patrol agents were able to apprehend all the aliens. In just a few hours the total number taken into custody in the Sunland Park area was 424, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a press statement.

LARGEST GROUP APPREHENDED—#BorderPatrol agents apprehended the largest group of 424 illegal aliens just after midnight this morning in Sunland Park, NM. A second group of 230 illegal aliens was also apprehended in Antelope Wells, NM this morning. More: https://t.co/54XxK78XB2 pic.twitter.com/i5owidRi1t

— CBP (@CBP) April 30, 2019

"This is an ongoing situation that US Border Patrol agents are facing in southern New Mexico: hundreds of parents and children being encountered by agents after having faced a dangerous journey in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers", the border agency added.

US President Donald Trump has often voiced his disdain regarding the influx of migrants from the US-Mexico border, calling for the construction of a wall on the border. For fiscal 2019, Trump demanded $5.7 billion in wall funds, but Congress appropriated only $1.375 billion for border fencing projects. Following the rejection of his wall funding demand, Trump declared the border was a national emergency - a move opposed by Democrats and some Republicans - and redirected $601 million in Treasury Department forfeiture funds, $2.5 billion in Defense Department drug interdiction funds and $3.6 billion from a military construction budget, for total spending of $8.1 billion for the wall.