HOLTVILLE, California: The 13 people killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the US had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials said Wednesday.
Surveillance video showed a Ford Expedition and Chevrolet Suburban drive through the opening early Tuesday, said Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief. The video has not been publicly released because it’s part of an ongoing investigation.
The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the US. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
The Expedition crammed with 25 people continued on, and a tractor-trailer struck it a short time later. Ten of the 13 killed in that crash have been identified as Mexican citizens. The Border Patrol said its agents were not pursuing the vehicle before the wreck.
The opening in the fence was about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the crash in the heart of California’s Imperial Valley, a major farming region now at the height of a harvest that provides much of the lettuce, onions, broccoli and winter vegetables to US supermarkets.
It was made of steel bollards that were built before former President Donald Trump blanketed much of the border with taller barriers that go deeper into the ground. Photos show a panel of eight steel poles was lifted out and left on the ground in the desert next to an old tire and other debris.
“Human smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life,” Bovino said. “Those who may be contemplating crossing the border illegally should pause to think of the dangers that all too often end in tragedy, tragedies our Border Patrol Agents and first responders are unfortunately very familiar with.”
The breach occurred in a busy area for illegal crossings near the Imperial Sand Dunes where migrants often climb over an aging barrier and wait for drivers to pick them up, hoping to avoid the scrutiny of Border Patrol agents at checkpoints on highways leading to Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix.
A pandemic-related measure that allows the Border Patrol to expel people without an opportunity to seek asylum potentially leads some to try to evade authorities instead of surrendering, sometimes with fatal consequences. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced expulsion powers nearly a year ago under Trump, and the Biden administration has signaled no plans to lift them anytime soon.
The cause of Tuesday’s collision wasn’t yet known, authorities said. The Expedition is built to hold eight people safely, but smugglers are known to pack people into vehicles in extremely unsafe conditions to maximize their profits.
Seats in the SUV had been removed except for those for the driver and front passenger, said Omar Watson, chief of the California Highway Patrol’s border division.
The crash happened in an area that became a major route for illegal border crossings in the late 1990s after heightened enforcement in San Diego pushed migrants to more remote areas.
Barely a mile from the crash, there is a cemetery with rows of unmarked bricks that is a burial ground for migrants who died crossing the border.
In 2001, John Hunter founded Water Station, a volunteer group that leaves jugs of water in giant plastic drums for dehydrated migrants.
“I was trying to figure out how to stop the deaths,” said Hunter, whose brother Duncan strongly advocated for border wall construction as a congressman.
Illegal crossings in the area fell sharply in the mid-2000s but the area has remained a draw for migrants and was a priority for wall construction under Trump. His administration’s first wall project was in Calexico.
When police arrived Tuesday at the crash site about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of San Diego, some passengers were trying to crawl out of the crumpled SUV. Others were wandering around the nearby fields. The big rig’s front end was pushed into the SUV’s left side and two empty trailers were jackknifed behind it.
The men and women in the SUV ranged in age from 15 to 53, and those who survived had injuries that were minor to severe, including fractures and head trauma, officials said. The driver was from Mexicali, Mexico, just across the border, and was among those killed.
The 68-year-old driver of the big rig, who is from the nearby California community of El Centro, suffered moderate injuries.
The crash occurred around 6:15 a.m. under a clear, sunny sky at an intersection just outside the community of Holtville, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) north of the border. Authorities said the tractor-trailer was heading north on a highway when the SUV pulled in front of it from a road with a stop sign.
It’s not clear if the SUV ran the stop sign or had stopped before entering the highway. How fast both vehicles were going also wasn’t yet known.
A 1997 Ford Expedition can carry a maximum payload of 2,000 pounds. If it had 25 people inside, that would easily exceed the payload limit, taxing the brakes and making it tougher to steer the vehicle, said Frank Borris, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation.
“You’re going to have extended stopping distances, delayed reactions to steering inputs and potential overreaction to any type of high-speed lane change,” said Borris, who now runs a safety consulting business.
SUV in crash where 13 died came through hole in border fence
SUV in crash where 13 died came through hole in border fence
Police clearing Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University, dozens arrested
- A pro-Palestinian tent encampment was cleared at the University of Chicago on Tuesdday
- Tensions have continued to ratchet up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the US
Officials at the university in Washington, D.C., had warned of possible suspensions for students engaging in protest activities on University Yard.
“While the university is committed to protecting students’ rights to free expression, the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations,” the university said in a statement.
Local media had reported that some protesters were pepper sprayed as police stopped them from entering the encampment and nearly 30 people had been arrested, according to community organizers.
In a statement, the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department said arrests were made for assault on a police officer and unlawful entry, but a number of arrests wasn’t immediately given. The department said it moved to disperse demonstrators because “there has been a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest.”
Tuesday evening, protesters carrying signs that read, “Free Palestine” and “Hands off Rafah,” marched to Granberg’s home. Police were called to maintain the crowd. No arrests were made.
This comes as Mayor Muriel Bowser and MPD Chief Pamela Smith are set to testify about the District of Columbia’s handling of the protest at a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on Wednesday afternoon.
A pro-Palestinian tent encampment was cleared at the University of Chicago on Tuesday after administrators who had initially adopted a permissive approach said the protest had crossed a line and caused growing concerns about safety.
University President Paul Alivizatos acknowledged the school’s role as a protector of freedom of speech after officers in riot gear blocked access to the school’s Quad but also took an enough-is-enough stance.
“The university remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest,” Alivizatos wrote in a message to the university community.
Tensions have continued to ratchet up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the US — and increasingly, in Europe — nearly three weeks into a movement launched by a protest at Columbia University. Some colleges cracked down immediately on protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Among those that have tolerated the tent encampments, some have begun to lose patience and call in police over concerns about disruptions to campus life, safety and the involvement of nonstudents.
Since April 18, just over 2,600 people have been arrested on 50 campuses, figures based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.
But not all schools are taking that approach, with some letting protesters hold rallies and organize their encampments as they see fit.
The president of Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Connecticut, has commended the on-campus demonstration — which includes a pro-Palestinian tent encampment — as an act of political expression. The camp there has grown from about 20 tents a week ago to more than 100.
“The protesters’ cause is important — bringing attention to the killing of innocent people,” university President Michael Roth wrote to the campus community Thursday. “And we continue to make space for them to do so, as long as that space is not disruptive to campus operations.”
The Rhode Island School of Design, where students started occupying a building Monday, affirms students’ rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly and supports all members of the community, a spokesperson said. The school said President Crystal Williams spent more than five hours with the protesters that evening discussing their demands.
On Tuesday the school announced it was relocating classes that were scheduled to take place in the building. It was covered with posters reading “Free Palestine” and “Let Gaza Live,” and dove was drawn in colored chalk on the sidewalk.
Campuses have tried tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to resolve the protests and clear the way for commencements.
At the University of Chicago, hundreds of protesters gathered for at least eight days until administrators warned them Friday to leave or face removal. On Tuesday, law enforcement dismantled the encampment.
Officers later picked up a barricade erected to keep protesters out of the Quad and moved it toward the demonstrators, some of whom chanted, “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation!” Police and protesters pushed back and forth along the barricade as the officers moved to reestablish control.
Dozens detained at Paris pro-Palestinian university protest
- Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said there would never be a right to disrupt France’s universities with such protests
- Police acted after about 100 students had been occupying a lecture theater for two hours
Paris: French police detained 86 people following an operation to remove students staging a pro-Palestinian occupation at the Sorbonne university in Paris, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Those arrested in the police operation on Tuesday night were being held for a variety of public order offenses, said the statement.
They include wilful damage, rebellion, violence against a person holding public authority, intrusion into an education establishment and holding a meeting designed to disrupt order. Some are also being held for participation in a group with a view to preparing violence or damage to property.
They can be held for an initial 24 hours, which can then be extended another 24 hours.
The day before police moved in, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said there would never be a right to disrupt France’s universities with such protests.
Police acted after about 100 students had been occupying a lecture theater for two hours in “solidarity” with the people of Gaza, an AFP journalist on site noted.
Tuesday night’s police operation at the Sorbonne — and at another university on Paris’s Left Bank, Science Po university — followed interventions to end similar protests at the end of April.
Students at universities in several European countries have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel’s punishing assault on Gaza.
Police have also intervened to clear campuses in the United States, Netherlands and Switzerland.
Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7 attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 129 hostages seized on October 7, out of the 253 taken, are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,789 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run besieged Palestinian territory.
First Bangladeshi pilgrims ready to depart for Hajj
- The country’s quota this year is 127,000 pilgrims
- First flight leaves for Saudi Arabia on Thursday
DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis are going to become some of the earliest Hajj pilgrims to arrive in Saudi Arabia this year, with the first batch scheduled to fly to Jeddah on Thursday.
This year, the Hajj is expected to start on June 14 and end on June 19.
While the pilgrimage itself can be performed over five or six days, pilgrims often arrive early, knowing that it may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill their religious duty.
The first Hajj flight carrying 419 pilgrims is scheduled to leave for Jeddah from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Thursday morning.
“Our pilgrims will be the first batch of Hajj pilgrims from around the world who will arrive in the Kingdom,” Mohammad Matiul Islam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.
“Some pilgrims opt to travel earlier to the holy land, as it gives them spiritual peace. It’s the pilgrims’ choice to determine their time of travel.”
This year, Saudi Arabia granted Bangladesh a quota of 127,000 pilgrims to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam. Because of the rising cost of airfares to the Middle East, fewer Bangladeshis than expected will be able to go.
Bangladesh, one of the most populous Muslim-majority countries, also struggled to meet the quota in 2023, when the minimum government rate for Hajj was $6,000.
To prevent the same scenario during the 2024 pilgrimage season, the Bangladeshi government reduced the cost by $1,000, but high inflation at home prevented a third of prospective pilgrims from registering.
“As we fell short of meeting the number, a quota of 41,000 is surrendered to Saudi Arabia,” Islam said. “The surrendering of this (remaining slots) will not affect the receiving of our Hajj quota next year.”
Saudi visa registration for Bangladeshis will end on Saturday, and most of them will be departing over the next few weeks from Dhaka, where they will be assisted by Saudi authorities under the flagship Makkah Route initiative.
The pre-travel program was launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims to meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin, and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
From Wednesday, those flying in the next few days can wait for departure at a special Hajj camp near the airport in Dhaka.
“While staying at the Hajj camp, the pilgrims have their Bangladeshi immigration part done. Also, a part of Saudi immigration is being done here as the pilgrims leave their luggage here to Makkah Route authorities,” Islam said.
“The air-conditioned accommodation here is free of cost for the pilgrims ... We suggest the pilgrims from outside Dhaka be at the Hajj camp two days before their flight. The camp can hold more than 5,000 pilgrims at a time.”
Russia warns French troops legitimate targets if they are sent to Ukraine
- French president Emmanuel Macron caused controversy in February by saying he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future
MOSCOW: Russia warned France on Wednesday that if President Emmanuel Macron sent troops to Ukraine then they would be seen as legitimate targets by the Russian military.
Macron caused controversy in February by saying he could not rule out the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine in the future. The French leader warned that if Russia wins in Ukraine then Europe’s credibility will be reduced to zero.
“It is characteristic that Macron himself explains this rhetoric with the desire to create some kind of ‘strategic uncertainty’ for Russia,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters.
“We have to disappoint him — for us the situation looks more than certain,” Zakharova said.
“If the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces. It seems to me that Paris already has proof of this.”
Zakharova said Russia was already seeing growing numbers of French nationals among those killed in Ukraine.
Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.
