Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) officers rescued 206 Central American migrants trapped in a sealed semi-tractor trailer. The Guatemalan and Honduran migrants, including women and children, told authorities cartel smugglers drugged them to inhibit the urge to use a bathroom during the trip. The migrants were encountered in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Saturday evening.
Texas Department of Public Safety Office of Inspector General investigators are looking into allegations of “inhumane” border security policies made by a DPS trooper deployed to the border region. A DPS trooper alleged he was ordered to “push people (migrants) back into the water to go to Mexico.” He also expressed concern over an order to “not give people water.”
Recent videos and photographs circulated on social media and by news outlets show Border Patrol agents opening Texas Border fence gates to take custody of migrants making landfall into the United States. One video revealed a Border Patrol agent physically cutting concertina wire installed by the state to accept the surrender of a group of migrants. A CBP source says the actions are required by law and recently enhanced by policy enacted after the 2021 Haitian Border Crisis in Del Rio.
Several groups of migrants crossed the Rio Grande, immediately surrendering to authorities. The largest of the groups, nearly 50 in total, surrendered to Texas Department of Public Safety troopers around midday on Sunday as Breitbart Texas looked on. Temperatures at the time hovered at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Jefferson County, Colorado, Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) West Metro Drug Task Force arrested ten alleged drug ring members suspected of distributing fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills, methamphetamine, heroin, and other drugs in and around the Denver metro area. Investigators say the group purchased the narcotics directly from a Mexican drug cartel. As of Thursday, the street value of the narcotics seized by investigators totaled more than $5 million.
Danny, a Venezuelan migrant who recently arrived in the “Big Apple,” is beyond surprised with the accommodations and benefits provided to him. He crossed the Rio Grande in May near Brownsville, Texas, after a grueling trek through Panama, Central America, and Mexico.
A group of open border advocates staged a protest on Friday near one of the busiest border crossing areas along the Rio Grande. About two dozen protesters chanted and unfurled signs critical of Abbott’s latest border buoy project on the day materials for the barrier project arrived in Eagle Pass, Texas. One group member carried a large sign that read, “Hey Governor, shove those Buoys up your AbButt.”
Border Patrol agents recovered 13 deceased migrants in one week along what the United Nations has declared the deadliest land border in the world. The recoveries made by the agency were accompanied by 226 rescues of migrants suffering heat-related injuries from June 25 to July 1, according to Jason Owens, the recently named the 26th Chief of the United States Border Patrol.
Texas Highway Patrol troopers are using innovative techniques to reduce the migrant flow at one of the busiest border crossing spots in the nation. In addition to plans to construct a floating border barrier in the area, the agency is using drones and its Tactical Marine Unit (TMU) to arrest migrant smugglers in mid-river in the Rio Grande. On Tuesday, the unit surprised one suspected smuggler who was caught unaware of the airboat’s swift approach.
Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a Mexican national on Monday after he attempted to achieve the American dream by donning scuba gear and navigating through the Colorado River into the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced an expansion to the number of daily asylum appointments available to migrants seeking admission through one of several southwest border ports of entry. The increase will raise the daily total of migrant admissions through the application from 1,250 per day to 1,450. According to CBP’s announcement on June 30, the number represents a nearly 50 percent increase from the daily total appointments available from May 12, when CBP officers began processing 1,000 appointments daily.
A potential tragedy was averted in the small border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, when Maverick County Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped a tractor-trailer on Thursday. After noting suspicious behavior by the truck driver and noises coming from the trailer, the deputies searched the pneumatic tank trailer being towed by the driver and located 18 migrants sealed inside.
A Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agent and a civilian motorist were seriously injured when the driver crashed his vehicle at a high rate of speed into an interior immigration highway inspection checkpoint. The agent was staffing the inspection station at the time of the accident, which occurred shortly after noon on Wednesday.
A suspected migrant smuggler led Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Kinney County Sheriff’s Office deputies on a high-speed pursuit that began near the small community of Brackettville, Texas. A trooper first spotted the suspect’s vehicle late Sunday night on a rural Farm-to-Market Road leading away from the border region. The pursuit ended when the suspected smuggler’s vehicle left the roadway and rolled several times, causing damage to a private ranch gate.
The ongoing heatwave impacting South Texas has claimed the lives of two migrants since Saturday, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection. Temperatures in the border city of Eagle Pass remained at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly six consecutive days. The source revealed that two deceased migrants were located just north of the Texas border.
A suspected migrant smuggler led Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers on a high-speed pursuit that began on June 13 in the small community of Brackettville, Texas. When troopers attempted to stop the suspicious vehicle within the incorporated area of the city, the driver allegedly chose to flee. The vehicle left the city limits on a rural farm-to-market road and reportedly reached speeds in excess of 115 miles per hour.
Frontline employees being pulled from normal inspection duties are reducing the number of labor hours dedicated to finding hidden narcotics, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection. Hundreds of hours daily are spent processing more than one thousand migrants using the CBP One application to schedule appointments to secure their release into the United States.
Since the beginning of Fiscal Year 23 on October 1, 2022, Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border apprehended nearly 13,000 Chinese migrants. The number represents a more than 1,000 percent increase in migrants from the communist regime when compared to the previous year’s totals.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced his intention to install a floating barrier in the middle of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas. The 1,000-foot-long structure, consisting of four-foot-wide buoys is a product manufactured by the Cochrane USA corporation. Abbot announced the installation of the barrier Thursday afternoon as he signed a host of border security bills in Austin.
The Department of Homeland Security claims the Biden-Harris administration’s comprehensive plan to manage the border after the expiration of Title 42 resulted in a significant reduction in encounters at the Southwest Border. Migrant arrests by the Border Patrol have dropped from nearly 11,000 per day to 3,400 on average between May 12 to June 2, 2023. The statement ignores some facts that need clarification.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are now charging arrested migrants who cross the Rio Grande with criminal trespass after attempting to breach temporary border walls in the heart of downtown Eagle Pass. As Breitbart Texas watched along the Rio Grande on Friday, one group of migrants was arrested by Highway Patrol troopers from Texas and Florida after managing to move through a stretch of concertina wire.
Law enforcement officials in Zavala County, Texas, say human smugglers are back to business as usual following a brief lull in activity on Texas roadways after the end of the Title 42 COVID-19 expulsion authority. Located a mere 30 miles from the Rio Grande border with Mexico, sheriff’s office deputies in the rural county thwarted 15 migrant smuggling cases in the last seven days.
The apprehension of migrants by Border Patrol agents along the southwest border fell by about nine percent in May, according to a CBP source. The slight decline in apprehensions follows the Biden administration’s ending of the Title 42 COVID-19 migrant expulsion program.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced his intention to retire from the post as head of the United States Border Patrol effective June 30. Ortiz notified the nearly 20,000 active Border Patrol agents of his intentions in an agency-wide email earlier this week. Ortiz led the agency during the two busiest years for migrant encounters along the southwest border in the Border Patrol’s entire 99-year history.
Authorities on both sides of the border could not prevent the entry of a steady stream of asylum-seeking migrants hoping to surrender to the Border Patrol. Despite the placement of Conex containers, concertina razor wire, and a more significant border wall constructed by the State of Texas, the migrants stubbornly moved around or crossed over the impediments. As Breitbart Texas looked on, more than one hundred migrants breached the barriers earlier this week.
The Del Rio Sector once again became the busiest along the southwest border as agents apprehended an average of nearly 1,200 migrants per day for the last four days. The nearly 4,000 migrants apprehended in the sector during the past four days accounted for more than 30 percent of the total migrant encounters along the entire southwest border.
Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 10,000 migrants who entered the U.S. between ports of entry during the first seven months of Fiscal Year 23. Of those, more than 8,000 were single adults. The single adult apprehensions exceed the total of all Chinese migrants apprehended during the past six fiscal years combined.
Border Patrol agents in a single border sector arrested five migrants later discovered to be on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) watch list. The apprehensions occurred on Friday in the Tucson Sector of the United States Border Patrol shortly after the end of Title 42. According to a source within Customs and Border Protection, not authorized to speak to the media, the migrants were referred to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task for further investigation and identity confirmation.
Two large groups totaling nearly 300 migrants crossed the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass early Saturday despite heavy rains and thunderstorms. The migrants seemed to disregard the inclement weather and surrendered to Border Patrol agents in two separate groups. The largest group crossing the Rio Grande consisted of nearly 170 mostly Venezuelan migrants that surrendered to authorities just before daybreak.
School district officials in Texas border communities reported multiple threats of violence as the anniversary of the Uvalde elementary school shooting approaches. Reports indicate parents are rushing to pick up children from schools. Officials with the San Felipe Del Rio
In less than 24 hours, the CDC’s Title 42 COVID-19 expulsion authority will expire. The end of the expulsion authority will mark the final departure from any enforcement policies enacted under the Trump administration that saw migrant crossing numbers quickly drop in late 2019 and 2020. Despite the latest media blitz by the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas assuring Americans that the Biden administration has things under control, we should all be skeptical.
Multiple local, state, and federal law enforcement entities in Mexico posted along the banks of the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, in a show of force as the end of the Title 42 COVID-19 expulsion authority nears. At daybreak on Wednesday, Breitbart Texas observed the Mexican police exercise that brought migrant crossings to a complete, albeit temporary, shutdown just across the border from Eagle Pass.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a planned immigration enforcement operation to curtail the flow of migrants crossing the border into El Paso. As nearly two thousand released migrants seek shelter and food in the heart of the city, DHS announced the plan slated to begin on Tuesday. The National Border Patrol Council sharply criticized the plan on Twitter, calling it a “sad joke – another pandering PR stunt”.
Kinney County Sheriff’s deputies found an estimated 150 migrants stowed away on a freight train near Spofford, Texas, hoping to escape the border region. The deputies summoned additional law enforcement officers to assist in boarding and searching the rail cars on Friday afternoon. In all, 86 migrants were removed from the train and turned over to the Border Patrol. An estimated 70 or more migrants managed to run onto nearby ranches and escape from the authorities.
Conditions in the heart of downtown El Paso leave no doubt as to the need for Mayor Oscar Leeser’s second disaster declaration in the past six months. Breitbart Texas visited the city observing more than 1,000 migrants, many of whom lack funds to leave the border region, camped on city sidewalks and in nearby alleys.
Migrants recently released by the Biden administration erected makeshift structures for several blocks and alleyways around the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso. The migrants sought shade as afternoon temperatures neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. Breitbart Texas observed the migrants, unable to bathe for several days, searching for relief from the heat on the city’s sidewalks and business entryways.
Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 181,000 migrants who crossed the southwest border from Mexico in April. The apprehensions mark the third consecutive month of increased apprehensions following a brief decline in January.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 37,000 migrants in April, a source reports. This more than doubles the apprehensions in March and exceeds the previous two months combined.
Breitbart Texas spoke with a Venezuelan migrant recently released on the downtown streets of Brownsville, Texas, who provided a before and after video of a migrant encampment. The migrant confirmed reports that members of the feared Gulf Cartel attacked the encampment last week. The migrant says the cartel members were angered by the Venezuelan migrants helping to ferry others across the Rio Grande using inflatable mattresses as makeshift rafts.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ claim that the border is not open is directly contradicted by the crossing of nearly 2,000 Venezuelan migrants per day into Brownsville, Texas. The impact of this newest migrant surge along the Texas border is easily viewed from the banks of the Rio Grande and the downtown streets of Brownsville.
