Report: More than 1,500 migrants waded across Rio Grande into El Paso in one day

U.S. immigration officials said during the weekend that more than 1,700 migrants were processed and released into El Paso.

Hundreds of migrants waded across the Rio Grande from Juárez into El Paso Sunday night. This is one of the largest mass crossings ever in the region. The migrants said they were from Nicaragua, Peru and Ecuador.

A total of 1,744 migrants were released into El Paso over the weekend, according to El Paso Matters. As of Sunday, there were over 5,100 migrants were being held in the Border Patrol Central Processing Center, which is designed hold 3,500 people. Due to the overflowing shelters, 611 of them were released on the streets.

Border Patrol agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the El Paso region, which includes New Mexico, have encountered almost 15,000 migrants in the past week – the highest weekly total of the year.

More than 300 migrants got off seven buses at the Leona Vicario shelter. Many migrants in this group were reportedly victims of a mass kidnapping in Durango early in December, when passengers on the Futura bus lines traveling toward the border were stopped by men in police uniforms and then brought to a house where they were reportedly held against their will.

According to El Paso Matters, the group was rescued by the Mexican military after six days, but Carmen and others said that they were not able to recover their stolen documents and possessions in the confusion of the rescue operation.