An MS NOW reporting team was rescued by eight Border Patrol agents after its SUV became stuck in the rugged, isolated terrain of the Texas desert.
Antonia Hylton and her colleagues were in the Big Bend region working on the premiere of “The Assignment” when their Jeep Wagoneer became lodged in the ground soon after they left the Alvarado Ranch.
“As the sun went down, our Jeep Wagoneer bottomed out in the desert,” Hylton recalled.
With night approaching and the crew unable to free the vehicle, they turned to Border Patrol for assistance, Hylton said.
“Eight Border Patrol agents in four different trucks came out that night to rescue our crew,” she said.
The recovery effort proved difficult: “Three of their four vehicles got trapped in the process.”
The dramatic rescue occurred while Hylton was reporting on resistance from some local landowners to the government’s use of eminent domain to acquire private property for border barriers.
One of those landowners is Yolanda Alvarado, whose family has held property in the area for five generations. A proposed barrier could block the family’s access to the Rio Grande or divide their home from an ancestral cemetery.
Hylton’s report also examined the challenging terrain along this section of the U.S.-Mexico border, where steep mountains, the Rio Grande and vast stretches of remote desert can make even basic travel hazardous.
From the U.S. side of the border, Hylton outlined the physical challenges confronting anyone attempting to cross into Texas from Mexico.
“If you’re in Mexico and you want to come here to Texas, you would first have to scale that mountain range, which is thousands of feet high,” Hylton said.
Even after making the descent and crossing the Rio Grande, she noted, travelers would remain “dozens and dozens of miles away from the nearest town center where you could get food, water, fuel, supplies.”
“Oh, and at many points of the year, you’d be doing that in 100 degree heat,” she added.
The Big Bend sector accounts for 1.3% of total border apprehensions, according to the MS NOW report.
The program also featured criticism of the wall from local officials, including Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, who spent 26 years as a Border Patrol agent.
The report also highlighted concerns ranging from private property rights to the potential impact of construction on tourism-dependent communities.
The Post has sought comment from MS NOW and Border Patrol.
