Group of 400 Migrants Cross Border into Southeast Texas

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a large group of 399 migrants into the Brownsville Station area of operations over the Christmas weekend.

Rio Grande Valley Station Chief Patrol Agent Glori I. Chavez tweeted photos of Brownsville Station agents apprehending yet another large migrant group. The group crossed the border on Dec. 22 shortly after other large groups crossed.

Chavez reported the large group consisted of families and single adults. She added that the agents identified the migrants as citizens of Chile, Panama, and Peru, in addition to other nations.

The crossing of large migrant groups is a new tactic for human smugglers moving migrants to the Brownsville Station area of operations. This tactic has been utilized extensively in the McAllen area and points further to the west.

The majority are families followed by single adults from #Venezuela, #Colombia, #Nicaragua, #Ecuador, and more. Migrant groups of this size are not commonly seen in this area. Well done #USBP team!

— Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez (@USBPChiefRGV) December 22, 2022

Chief Chavez tweeted photos of large groups of migrants being apprehended during the previous two days by Brownsville Station agents. “So far, a total of 258 migrants have been encountered near (the) Fort Brown Golf Course in Brownsville, Texas,” the chief reported.

Until recently, the Rio Grande Valley Sector had been the busiest in the nation for migrant border crossings. That changed over the past few months as migrant crossings moved in larger numbers to the El Paso and Del Rio Sectors.

During the month of November, agents in this sector apprehended nearly 28,000 migrants, according to the November Southwest Land Border Encounters Report released late on the Friday night before Christmas. This brought the year-to-date total to 56,118 for the first two months of FY23.