U.S. Customs and Border Protection

EDINBURG (News Release) – Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) Border Patrol agents interdicted six illegal migrant smuggling events with the assistance of local law enforcement agencies.

On August 3, Harlingen Border Patrol Station agents responded to a call for assistance from the Port Mansfield Police Department concerning six individuals rescued from a vessel more than a mile offshore. Agents interviewed the group and determined three were illegally present in the U.S. and the other three were U.S. citizens.  The three U.S. citizens were juveniles travelling with a non-citizen relative.  All were determined to be in good health and transported to the station for processing.

Later that morning, McAllen Border Patrol Station (MCS) agents interviewed five individuals encountered after a vehicle pursuit/bail out with Palmview Police Department (PPD). Agents arrested three migrants from Guatemala and one migrant from Ecuador. PPD retained custody of the U.S. citizen juvenile driver to charge with migrant smuggling.

Just before noon, RGV agents and Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office Operation Stonegarden units conducted a vehicle stop on a Ford Expedition suspected of human smuggling in Mission, resulting in two arrests. Upon further investigation, the team arrested two more subjects at a migrant stash house nearby. All subjects are nationals from Mexico and no caretaker was identified.

Later that evening, RGV agents attempted to initiate an immigration inspection on the occupants of a Cadillac SUV near Norias. The vehicle failed to yield and led agents and Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS) troopers on a vehicle pursuit. The vehicle came to a stop near Raymondville and all the occupants bailed out. The grass under the unoccupied vehicle caught fire as did the Cadillac until the Raymondville Fire Department responded to extinguish the flames. TXDPS arrested the U.S. citizen driver and agents apprehended three migrants from Honduras in the brush nearby.  

Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station agents encountered two large groups totaling 297 subjects near La Grulla yesterday and this morning. The group consisted of 140 single adults, 106 family unit members (four are U.S. citizen juveniles), and 51 unaccompanied children. The migrants are from Cuba, South and Central America.