EAGLE PASS, Texas — The group of migrant women with three young children slowly made their way to the United States across a shallow part of the Rio Grande, led by a one-armed coyote smuggler, braving a dangerous route and fleeing cartel checkpoints along the border. path.

They put everything on the line because they knew the Trump administration – and its a new pragmatic border tsar — would soon be in charge at the border.

“It’s a risk,” one of the Venezuelan women told The Post moments after slipping into the country and into the arms of Border Patrol agents.

“Because many of us enter out of necessity or because we are politically persecuted, or because of the problems of violence in our country.”

The woman, dressed in a Mickey Mouse shirt, said she believed the former president would be re-elected, so she and others in her group rushed to cross the border – knowing about their time with the absent czar borders, Vice President Kamala Harris in charge. was running out.

When asked if she thought she would be forced out once President-elect Trump was in office, she grimly acknowledged that “it could happen” and admitted that her return to the White House was what accelerated their timetable for entry into the country.

She said she spent five months in Mexico City trying, unsuccessfully, to get an appointment with CBP One. a Biden-Harris administration app designed to allow asylum seekers to legally access the United States which has been exploited by criminal migrants and gang members.

“I’ve never had a date…and I decided to take the risk and go across and see what happens,” she said.

Days after the election, officials on both sides of the U.S. southern border are bracing for a mad rush of thousands of last-minute migrants before Trump takes office, officials said.

An average of 300 migrants still flock illegally each day to Eagle Pass — and although foot traffic has slowed significantly since the peak — down about 86 percent, according to officials — the Lone Star State is still bracing for the possibility of “mass” crossings before border control changes hands.

“People know the window is going to close, so I think the shit is going to explode in December and January,” a Border Patrol source said, noting that agents are being “hit hard” by smugglers smuggling migrants on dirt bikes.

“We’re waiting for these last-minute groups to cross the border before Trump comes in. It’s already starting,” another border official said.

The current garrison includes immigration agents from Mexico and the United States, gathered from both sides of the border in the Eagle Pass area – a main artery for migrants entering the United States under immigration policies. lackadaisical enforcement of the Biden administration.

Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez told the Post that smugglers in Mexico have ordered groups of illegal migrants to cross to areas where state agents do not have the authority to make arrests.

“These groups are passing through areas where the majority is federal land, which means that’s where the Border Patrol is doing a lot more work,” Olivarez said.

“So these groups are looking for Border Patrol agents. They don’t want to encounter a DPS or National Guard soldier because they know they won’t let them cross.

Border Patrol, on the other hand, will follow current Biden administration policy and subject them to scrutiny. Since the group observed by The Post arrived as a family unit, they will likely be released into the United States with dates to appear in immigration court.

These days, more and more migrants are trying to evade law enforcement and are increasingly breaking into private ranches — and a new presidential administration could be the reason this trend accelerates, Olivarez said.

“Now they’re starting to realize that it’s a lot harder to get in now, not only in Texas, but also because of some of the consequences and some of the rhetoric from the new administration,” he explained.

Across the border, Mexican immigration agents and the Mexican National Guard have been seen patrolling the area north of the international bridge — another main route for migrants crossing illegally.

A U.S. border agent told the Post that Piedras Negras — a stone’s throw from Eagle Pass — is seeing up to 30 migrants a day for appointments made through CBP One.

Law enforcement officials in the border zone have praised President-elect Trump and new border czar Tom Homan, who have promised that mass expulsions of migrants are the order of the day.

“(Trump) is coming with a new star. I’m happy that (Homan) is what moved up the chain of command. He worked on Border Patrol. I’m glad he knows immigration laws and knows everything that needs to be done in the event of deportation,” Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber told the Post.

He questioned the logic behind the current administration that lets millions of migrants cross the border with seemingly no concern for where they end up or how they get there.

“There are a lot of people here who came at the same time. We don’t know what there is here, people who have no skills, no education, none of that. It is a burden on the government. This is a burden on the government, because who pays for all this?

Schmerber said that while the county’s law enforcement agencies are ready and willing to help the new administration, a lack of resources limits their ability to significantly reduce the problem.

“We control the border and we have people coming here from the other side with drugs and criminals, so I have to take care of the security of the county…we work with the DEA, we work with the others federal agencies as much as we can, but it’s not a full-time job,” he explained.

“It’s just when we have the opportunity to work with them, but we don’t have the manpower, or the technology, or the computers, etc. We are here to help, but we can’t take over a job, especially with immigration. My employees don’t know the laws or anything like that.