The Border Patrol is again facing overcrowding issues in several migrant detention facilities along the southwest border, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection. The source says the return of increasing numbers of large migrant group crossings is
New York City’s infamous “Naked Cowboy,” Robert Burck, appeared in front of the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan strumming his guitar as more than a hundred migrants lined up searching for shelter in the Big Apple. Burck, who is a well-known street busker, appeared to be taking advantage of the large media presence drawn to the hotel by the plight currently facing the migrants who have been sleeping on the sidewalks outside the hotel earlier this week.
A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) drone operator spotted what appears to be an armed migrant smuggler guiding a group of migrants into the United States. The incident occurred in downtown Eagle Pass upstream of a floating buoy barrier that was put in place to prevent or divert migrant crossings. The footage captured by the drone operator shows the migrant smuggler carrying what the agency describes as a long gun as he guides a group of eleven migrants across the Rio Grande on Thursday.
An ongoing heatwave impacting much of the nation and the swift-moving currents of the Rio Grande proved deadly for migrants attempting to enter the United States during the month of July. According to a source within Customs and Border Protection, 125 migrants perished attempting to cross the U.S. southwest border in July.
Nearly 250,000 migrants from a host of nations have made the deadly trek through the Darien Gap this year in hopes of reaching the United States. According to government officials in Panama, the number of migrants who traveled through the deadly jungle pathway since January broke previous yearly records. Officials estimate the total regional crossings could hit 400,000 by the year’s end.
The Eagle Pass City Council voted unanimously to rescind an agreement with the State of Texas designating a public park as private property under the control of the Department of Public Safety. The designation allowed Texas law enforcement authorities to post “Private Property” signs within the park and facilitated the prosecution of migrants for criminal trespass.
Officials cordoned off a Manhattan sidewalk to accommodate dozens of mostly Venezuelan migrants outside the Roosevelt Hotel. The video shows more than 50 migrants sleeping on cardboard outside the hotel after standing in line hoping to receive more permanent shelter.
International ports of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas, were closed for nearly one hour after a group of nearly 50, mostly Venezuelan migrants, attempted to force their way through one of the ports to claim asylum. According to a source within CBP, the group of migrants forced their way onto Bridge One but were repelled by CBP Office of Field Operations personnel who closed the gates and shut down all traffic on Tuesday evening.
House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) and Chairman James Comer (R-KY) of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability are demanding answers from Customs and Border Protection officials regarding allegations of retaliation against a Border Patrol sector chief patrol agent. CBP officials reportedly relieved the chief of his command within hours of providing transcribed testimony before the committees.
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.