The more than 70 checkpoints the U.S. Border Patrol maintains between 25 and 75 miles north of the border between the United States and Mexico effectively limit the movements of thousands of undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley to a small area of southern Texas.
On Friday, after being struck by gunfire originating from the Mexican side of the border U.S.-Mexico border, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter had to make an emergency landing in the Texas city of Laredo.
In the wake of an increase in Mexican immigrants discovered having drowned trying to cross into South Texas, the U.S. Border Patrol has expanded its search-and-rescue teams to better monitor the area.
Several hundred protests were held throughout the nation on Friday and Saturday regarding the influx of undocumented immigrant children fleeing their homes in Central America to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
As the nation's border states continue to see an influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America cross the U.S.-Mexico border, filling up federal facilities, President Barack Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to pass a $3.7 billion fund to process the undocumented minors and transport them back to their homelands.
In recent months, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has come under fire for treatment of immigrants it has arrested, and now public officials have raised concerns with agents in Texas who have been transporting detainees and abandoning them in other states.
Federal law enforcement agencies have struggled to reduce the amount of marijuana smuggled into the country through the U.S.-Mexico border while the Rio Grande poses as its biggest challenge.
