Interagency Collaboration Leads to 28 Arrests
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
EDINBURG – (News Release) Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol (RGV) agents disrupted four migrant smuggling attempts resulting in 28 arrests. A large group of nearly 250 migrants was also encountered in La Grulla, Texas.
On March 9, agents working at the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint referred a tractor hauling a refrigerated trailer to the secondary inspection area following an initial immigration inspection. During questioning of the driver, a citizen of Cuba with a United States employment authorization card, agents encountered ten migrants unlawfully in the U.S. in the cab of his trailer. Three of the ten migrants were unaccompanied minors. All subjects were placed under arrest and escorted into the checkpoint.
On March 10, Weslaco Border Patrol Station agents responded to a request for assistance from U.S. Marshals at a residence in Pharr. Authorities encountered nine migrants inside the residence. Agents determined the nine migrants were citizens of Mexico and Central America unlawfully present in the U.S. No caretaker was identified at the location.
Later that morning, RGV agents responded to a suspected migrant stash house in Alamo, where they apprehended five unlawfully present adult migrants from Mexico and Central America.
That afternoon, agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers received information of migrants being harbored at a residence in Brownsville. At the residence, they apprehended two migrants from Mexico and Honduras, and the caretaker, a U.S. citizen.
Additionally, Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station agents encountered a large group of 249 migrants south of La Grulla. The group consisted of 133 single adults, 74 family members, and 42 unaccompanied minors from Central and South America, and Cuba.
All subjects were processed accordingly.
