Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety took Fox News reporter Bill Melugin and his camera crew up in a helicopter so they could survey the scale of President Joe Biden’s crisis on the southern border after the administration restricted Fox News’ ability yesterday to fly drones over an area where thousands of illegal aliens were gathering under a bridge.
“It is incredible to see this perspective up here,” Melugin said. “We hear the administration say ‘the border is closed, there is extreme progress being made.’ This does not look like a closed border from here. This is hundreds of people streaming in every minute here, and they’re all going to this international bridge.”
“Unfortunately for the overstretched border agents down there, this situation looks like its going to get worse before it gets better because this stream of people is not stopping,” Melugin said live on air, later adding, “Our border is wide open where you’re looking right now; there is no resistance whatsoever.”
.@BillFOXLA: "It is incredible to see this perspective up here. We hear the administration saying the border is closed. There's extremely progress being made. This doesn't not look like a closed border…This is hundreds of people streaming in…Pretty remarkable footage." pic.twitter.com/PgaiE11Nuu
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
.@BillFOXLA: "I have been covering the border all summer long. It’s like my 10th trip out here. I have not seen anything like this…What I'm looking at right now is — is incredible…It’s one thing seeing it on TV, but seeing it up here…It’s wild. Our border is wide open." pic.twitter.com/MJchfvwf0V
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 17, 2021
“We are directly above the international bridge in Del Rio, and we are heading over the Rio Grande right now. This is a dam that connects Del Rio to Ciudad Acuña. And this is where hundreds of people are streaming into the United States illegally right now,” Melugin said, “Certainly does not look like an international border there. But you can see the crowds of people down there. These are people who have just crossed it … that’s where they’re all walking to the bridge right now. That’s why there’s so many people under the bridge; you can see them streaming in across the Rio Grande … that’s when they officially cross illegally to the United States. And there’s a dirt path down there that they walk towards. And that leads us right to the international bridge.”
Melugin said that the people who were there were effectively waiting to be processed because Border Patrol had no where else to hold them.
“It’s now over 10,000,” Melugin said in reference to the number of people under the bridge. “And again, there are reports that there are more than 10,000 migrants still on the way, and those appear to be at least partially true because when we fly over Ciudad Acuña, we are seeing a constant stream of vans and cabs pulling up in a neighborhood across from Del Rio. A bunch of migrants are getting out with their bags and their gear, and then they walk down to that dam and they just cross illegally to the United States. It is non-stop. This has been happening all morning long, and then when you multiply that by days in a row, it’s easy to start seeing why this is becoming such a problem under the bridge here.”
Melugin noted in a follow up tweet that the FAA later cleared Fox News to fly their drone again after the network submitted a waiver.
Thank you to @TxDPS for taking us up in the chopper today while our drone was grounded by the Feds. The true scope of the situation in Del Rio is seen best from the air.
Also happy to report the FAA has cleared us to fly our drone again after FOX submitted a waiver. pic.twitter.com/ACG6IGxryL— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 17, 2021