The U.S. Border Patrol detained more than 300 undocumented immigrants who crossed the border late Monday night in Sunland Park, New Mexico, officials said.

The mass crossing occurred the same night that President Donald Trump had a campaign rally about nine miles away in El Paso promoting his proposed border wall.

Sunland Park is just west of El Paso on the New Mexico side of the Rio Grande.

It was the first group of 100 or more migrants detained in Sunland Park since similar mass-crossings in New Mexico's remote Bootheel region, the Border Patrol said.

Shortly before midnight Monday, Border Patrol agents spotted the group going around border fencing where it ends near Mount Cristo Rey, officials said.

The group of 311 migrants was made up mostly of Central American families and unaccompanied children, officials said. The detained migrants were transported to the Border Patrol station in Santa Teresa for processing.

The Border Patrol released a photo with a 1:43 a.m. time stamp showing migrants huddled under blankets in a sally port.

The Sunland Park incident followed the detention of 330 Central American migrants earlier Monday in the remote border area at Antelope Wells, N.M., the Border Patrol said.

Large groups of Central American migrants seeking political asylum have been crossing the border and surrendering to Border Patrol agents near Antelope Wells, some 122 miles west of El Paso,

The Border Patrol has said that smugglers transport migrant groups by bus to the border and then tell the migrants to cross and surrender to agents near the Antelope Wells border port of entry.

The Border Patrol has said 28 groups of more than 100 people have been apprehended in the Antelope Wells area since the start of the federal fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.

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