Texas authorities catch Afghan and Iranian males and save smuggled children

In Texas border counties, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are still making arrests of unmarried men of military age, including Special Interest Aliens from Iran and Afghanistan. Additionally, they keep saving kids who have been transported from Mexico across the border.

Maverick County continues to capture large groups of illegal border crossers. 176 unlawful border crossers, including families, unaccompanied youngsters, and single individuals, were apprehended by troopers on December 1.

Troopers detained 85 individuals, including 11 Afghan SIAs, for criminal trespassing. DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said the other adults who were detained were unmarried and came from Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, and El Salvador.

In Maverick County, authorities captured a group of 289 shortly after Thanksgiving. There were seven Iranian SIAs among them. He said all were turned over to Border Patrol.

The Center Square reports that the Texas DPS has expressed worries on a rise in SIA arrests. The majority of recent arrests have included personnel from other nations, including Iran, which the US State Department has classified as a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

According to The Center Square, DPS has also captured SIAs from Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Mali, and Turkey.

After cartel members transport individuals from Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the Rio Grande River, the bulk are being captured in Maverick County, which has important crossing locations close to Eagle Pass.

SIAs are defined by the US Department of Homeland Security as noncitizens who are known or assessed to potentially have a connection to terrorism and represent a risk to US national security based on an examination of their travel patterns.

Additionally, Texas DPS officers are actively hunting down human traffickers and saving minors.

A 23-year-old Guatemalan mother in Hidalgo County paid a smuggler to cross the border with her 5-year-old kid.

She recounts how they were abandoned in the brush after making two attempts to cross in a video interview with a trooper.

A group of people can be seen walking up the riverbank and crossing the river on a raft in the DPS drone footage. The video shows that no Border Patrol officers, law enforcement, or barricades are present to stop unauthorized access.

A Mexican national who was also in the country illegally met them in Texas. He was supposed to transport them farther into the country, but he failed, and the mother and child ended up in the brush. The toddler was covered in thorns from the cactus.

Despite being captured by troopers, the driver was arrested, jailed, and charged with people smuggling by Border Patrol officials. Additionally, the child received treatment for his wounds.

According to the mother, troopers found out that a family member in California had paid a smuggling group to get them across the border and ultimately to California.

In a coordinated operation with the Border Patrol, DPS troopers in Mission, Hidalgo County, arrested three illegally entering Mexican nationals after Thanksgiving.

They were getaways, individuals who broke into countries between ports of entry to avoid being apprehended. One was a coyote who was paid to assist them in breaking in and evading detention; the other two had cartel wristbands and were smuggled.

The coyote was taken into custody and accused of smuggling people by troopers. The Border Patrol was given control of the others.

In another case, a 5-year-old girl who had been smuggled across the border was saved by troopers in Val Verde County.

When a trooper pulled over the driver of a Ram 1500 on Veterans Boulevard in downtown Del Rio, the interdiction got underway.

The trooper saw during the traffic stop that the child in the rear seat fit the description of a child seen on border surveillance footage being smuggled across the border.

Not far from the traffic stop, the video seems to show a man dashing across a narrow Rio Grande River riverbed while holding the youngster.

Inside the car, a female Mexican national with temporary residency status who resides in North Carolina identified herself to the trooper as the mother of the child. She added that she paid $8,000 to have the youngster transported across the border after discovering a smuggling organization online.

The smuggler, a Mexican national and permanent resident of the United States, was detained and charged by troopers. He acknowledged that he would receive $1,000 in exchange for smuggling the youngster.

The Border Patrol received the mom and child. However, when the District Attorney’s Office reviews the case, DPS is looking into the mother further in order to file charges against her, Olivarez stated.

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