Texas Border: 16 Migrants in Semi Busted - River Patrols Also Increase
Surveillance along the Rio Grande makes it harder for smuggler & migrants to cross
State and federal law enforcement agencies are continuing to tighten enforcement along the border with Mexico - and they are reporting results:
Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Special Agents and State Troopers broke up a large-scale smuggling attempt in Laredo on January 28, 2025. They discovered 16 migrants inside the sleeper compartment of a semi-truck stopped for a traffic violation.
Elsewhere along the border, efforts continue to make it more difficult for smugglers and migrants to cross into the country illegally.

Riverine Patrol Boats from the US Coast Guard have been added to the fleet of state and federal watercraft patrolling the Rio Grande to prevent illegal border crossings between the US and Mexico.
Border Patrol Agents join the Coast Guardsmen on the vessels for joint patrols.
Coast Guard aircraft are also being assigned to the ongoing border security and immigration missions underway along the Southern Border:

The Coast Guard has begun conducting "Alien Expulsion Flight Operations" between California and Texas. The Coast Guard flies aliens to undisclosed locations in those states, where the Department of Defense transports them internationally.
Meanwhile, in West Texas, the border is being hardened with sensors and barriers to detect and deter smugglers of migrants and drugs.

Agents in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector have installed barriers to prevent illegal border crossings by drug and human smugglers on dirt bikes and Utility Task Vehicles (UTV) - which is a larger version of an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) that can carry more people.

The US Border Patrol says cartel human smugglers are increasingly using UTVs - some of them camouflaged - to try and avoid detection and apprehension. The UTVs are a challenge for Border Patrol Agents to chase on the ground - so they often call in helicopters - which the smugglers soon find out they cannot outrun.
Last October, Agents from the El Paso Sector's Santa Teresa stations apprehended three migrants being moved through the desert on a UTV (pictured below):

In the Big Bend Sector, Border Patrol Agents have completed the installation of an "AI eye in the sky" that will watch remote sections of the border there and send an alert when it detects smugglers and migrants crossing illegally.

They have set up an autonomous surveillance tower that scans the desert terrain with a camera and radar and then alerts agents when it spots a target. The system is portable (fitting in the back of three pick-up trucks when disassembled) and produces its own power through solar cells - so it can be placed anywhere.
The tower is able to identify and track multiple targets as well as able to peer across the border into Mexico to alert agents to groups of migrants who often wait until nightfall to cross in the hope of avoiding detection.

Do you believe enough is being done to deter illegal crossings along the US Border with Mexico?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers