A dramatic shift at the border as migrants converge on a remote corner of South Texas

Venezuelan migrants Kimberly González and Denny Velasco and their children wait for a bus at Mission: Border Hope in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Verónica G. Cárdenas for NPR)

It was late afternoon when José Albornoz emerged, tired and soaking wet, from the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.

The first person he encountered on the U.S. side was Luis Valderrama, a former U.S. Border Patrol agent who owns the cattle ranch where Albornoz was now standing.