U.S.-Mexico Border: 110 Migrants Rescued in Separate Smuggling Attempts in Texas; DHS Announces End to Title 42 Expulsions

At least 110 illegal migrants, who were trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, were rescued by Texas officials in separate smuggling attempts this week.

According to New York Post, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) discovered 76 illegal migrants in the back of a truck they pulled over in Dimmit County, Texas on Thursday. Officials did not mention the origins of the migrants, but they were turned over to the custody of the Border Patrol.

Fox News reported that the driver, a Honduran national, was arrested for human smuggling. Texas DPS said the driver was in the country illegally himself.

The department further noted that the driver was also in possession of meth and had "a previous criminal history of drug and weapons charges."

U.S.-Mexico Border: Border Patrol Agents in Texas Rescue 34 More Illegal Migrants

Border Patrol agents rescued 18 migrants crammed inside a U-Haul trailer early Tuesday, according to Border Report.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that the U-Haul pickup pulling the trailer stopped at the Border Patrol checkpoint on New Mexico Highway 185, and authorities found 17 migrant adults and one unaccompanied child inside the trailer.

The driver was reportedly arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to transport migrants. Agents believed that the smuggling scheme was connected to a driver who had crossed the checkpoint minutes before the U-Haul.

The other driver, who was found to have an AK-47 rifle, a 9 mm handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, a flare gun, and ammunition, was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to transport migrants.

On Sunday, 16 more migrants, including a child, were discovered by Border Patrol agents in Northeast El Paso, Texas. The migrants were rescued after a resident alerted border agents of a possible human smuggling scheme after spotting a tractor-trailer parked along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the Texas-New Mexico state line.

Some of the migrants, who were reportedly from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, ended up at the Central Processing Center, while others were expelled to Mexico under Title 42.

The driver was referred to the El Paso Sector Integrated Targeting Team and the Texas DPS as part of an ongoing interagency investigation.

"Ruthless human smugglers continuously endanger human lives as one of their tactics is to smuggle migrants in confined spaces with restricted oxygen," El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said in a news release.

DHS Officially Announced End to Title 42 Expulsions at U.S.-Mexico Border

The Biden administration has officially announced that the U.S. will end its use of the controversial public health rule known as Title 42.

In a statement on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted that Title 42 would be rescinded by May 23, but expulsions of adults and families will continue until then, except for unaccompanied children that have been exempt since January last year.

Mayorkas said single adult asylum seekers and families expelled back to Mexico or their home countries since the start of the pandemic could continue to make an asylum claim starting May 23 for a chance to enter the U.S.

On Wednesday, a source told NBC News that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had notified the DHS that it would terminate Title 42, which has blocked more than 1.7 million attempts to cross the border.

But in a statement, the DHS secretary stressed that the end of Title 42 does not mean that all migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border will be allowed to stay.

"Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed," Mayorkas said.

According to NBC News, there are currently thousands of migrants living in camps in poor conditions in northern Mexico after agents turned them away under Title 42.

Meanwhile, DHS officials said they are bracing for a migrant influx of more than 170,000 after the end of Title 42.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

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