Texas Department of Public Safety troopers continue to arrest single military-aged men in Texas border counties, including Special Interest Aliens from Afghanistan and Iran. They also continue to rescue children who have been smuggled across the border from Mexico.
Large groups of illegal border crossers continue to be apprehended in Maverick County. On December 1, troopers encountered a group of 176 illegal border crossers, including single adults, families, and unaccompanied minors.
Troopers arrested 85 people for criminal trespassing, including 11 SIAs from Afghanistan. According to DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez, the other single adults arrested were from El Salvador, Ecuador, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
Just after Thanksgiving, troopers apprehended a group of 289 in Maverick County. Among them were seven Iranian SIAs. All were turned over to Border Patrol, he stated.
The Texas DPS has raised concerns about an increase in the number of SIA arrests, according to The Center Square. Recent arrests have primarily involved men from foreign countries, including Iran, which has been designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism by the US State Department.
Other SIAs apprehended by DPS include those from Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Mali, and Turkey, according to The Center Square.
The majority are being apprehended in Maverick County, with major crossing points near Eagle Pass, after cartel members move people across the Rio Grande River from Piedras Negras, Mexico.
The US Department of Homeland Security defines SIAs as noncitizens who, “based on an analysis of travel patterns,” are “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” and “potentially pose a national security risk to the United States.”
Texas DPS troopers are also actively pursuing human smugglers and rescuing children.
In Hidalgo County, a Guatemalan woman claiming to be 23 paid a smuggler to bring her and her 5-year-old son across the border.
In a video interview with a trooper, she describes how they attempted to cross twice and were left behind in the brush.
The DPS drone video footage shows a group of people crossing the river on a raft and walking up the riverbank. According to the footage, there are no law enforcement, Border Patrol agents, or barriers in place to prevent illegal entry.
In Texas, they were met by a Mexican national who was also illegally in the country. His job was to smuggle them further into the country, but something went wrong, leaving the mother and child in the brush. The child was covered in cactus thorns.
Although troopers apprehended the driver, Border Patrol agents detained, arrested, and charged him with human smuggling. The child was also treated for his injuries.
The mother claimed that a family member in California paid a smuggling organization to smuggle them across the border and eventually to California, troopers discovered.
Following Thanksgiving, DPS troopers in Mission, Hidalgo County, conducted a joint operation with Border Patrol to apprehend three Mexican nationals who had illegally entered the country.
They were getaway’s, people who illegally entered between ports of entry in order to evade capture. Two had cartel wristbands and paid to be smuggled; one was a coyote who was paid to help them illegally enter and avoid capture.
Troopers arrested and charged the coyote with human smuggling. The others were turned over to the Border Patrol.
In another instance, troopers rescued a 5-year-old girl in Val Verde County after being smuggled across the border.
The interdiction began after a trooper stopped the driver of a Ram 1500 on Veterans Boulevard in downtown Del Rio.
During the traffic stop, the trooper noticed that the child in the back seat matched the description of one being smuggled across the border caught in a border surveillance video.
The footage appears to show a man holding the child while running across a shallow riverbed of the Rio Grande River not far from the traffic stop.
A female Mexican national inside the vehicle who has temporary resident status and lives in North Carolina told the trooper she was the child’s mother. She also said she found a smuggling organization online and paid $8,000 to have the child smuggled across the border.
Troopers arrested and charged the smuggler, a Mexican national and permanent resident in the U.S. He confessed he was going to be paid $1,000 to smuggle the child.
The woman and child were turned over to Border Patrol. However, “DPS is conducting a follow up investigation in pursuing charges against the mother upon review by the District Attorney’s Office,” Olivarez said.
