For the activists organizing the protests, the point was not simply to help a small group of migrants enter the country. The intended goal was to highlight what they considered a broken immigration system that separated families and to pressure the Obama administration and Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
But this third action had begun to raise concern inside the administration. Word of the earlier crossings appeared to be circulating among migrant communities and criminal smuggling networks along the border. Cartels that controlled the crossing routes seemed to recognize that the tactic could open a new market for families with children who had previously been deterred by the more perilous desert crossing their male relatives had attempted years before.