CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — The Texas National Guard was in full force Saturday in this Mexican border city, as dozens of migrants tried to illegally cross into the US.
Under the Ysleta-Zaragoza Bridge, migrants —including mothers with small children strapped to their backs — jumped across small rocks to cross the Rio Grande.
But once across, concertina wire held them back as did 30 members of the Texas National Guard.
“Vamanos,” — “Let’s go!” — a loudspeaker blared from a DPS vehicle on the opposite side, with the border wall about 300 feet in the background.
“Vamanos,” the agent repeated.
Moments later, a dozen Texas National Guardsmen appeared telling them to leave.
Again, the migrants leapt across the water.
This time retreating.
“There’s another way we can go through,” a young Guatemalan man told The Post.
He said it’s his first time trying to cross.
He’s been here for three days.
Another man, 18-year-old Rile Barebes Santos, said he was not afraid to cross the border, even as he noticed the National Guard troops.
“I want to be something when I grow up,” said the high school student who left the Dominican Republic two weeks ago after the murder of two uncles.
“There is no security where we live,” said Barebes Santos, who is from the Dominican capital Santo Domingo.
He told The Post he arrived Friday in Juarez on a series of buses, and was robbed once he got to Mexico of 300 Mexican pesos or just over $17.
As the migrants tried to find another way to cross, a Juarez police car blared its lights.
The migrants ran from the bridge, but returned to sit in front of the border wire.
A 16-year-old was left in tears after the Texas National Guard turned her away from the bridge.
Kleisy, 16, said she was trying to go to Dallas. She left Guatemala about a month ago.
She has two sisters in Guatemala.
Her mom has cancer.
Her plan is to be with her dad in Dallas and send money back home.
Several of the National Guard told them to leave the area, and extended the concertina wire as a Post photographer and reporter looked on.
