Idle buses, empty Border Patrol boats: Arrests for illegal crossings fall in the Rio Grande Valley

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 5:31 PM EST, February 14, 2025


MISSION, Texas (AP) — An idled Border Patrol bus sat empty this week, on standby for any migrants surrendering near the southern tip of Texas. Agents in two speedboats zipped past pockets of sandy shores, known landing spots for people entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico on inner tubes but saw nothing suspicious.

Once busy river landings near the Texas border city of Mission were barren of the migrants who previously crossed there, though the river bank was littered with clothes, plastic bracelets issued by smugglers and a teddy bear on an unusually cold Thursday morning.

Arrests for illegal crossings have fallen dramatically from an all-time monthly high of 250,000 in December 2023, perhaps most strikingly in the Rio Grande Valley, the epicenter for migrant arrivals from 2013 to 2022. Associated Press journalists accompanying Border Patrol agents in an SUV and on speedboats that traversed 30 miles along the Rio Grande Valley and river for five hours Thursday didn’t encounter a single migrant.

Arrests, already at their lowest levels since 2019 when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said Friday they are currently about 350 a day, down from more than 1,500 daily in December, the last month of published data.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/border-immigration-texas-mexico-24b869192aab39075cb2b0b60b7b6649

[Crowman2009]

1. Probably because the whole world knows that America is fucked.

[durablend]

4. "BUT TEH KARAVANS!" /s

Who the hell in their right mind would want to come here?

[Initech]

15. Fox News created this crisis. I'm personally loving seeing it blow up in their stupid faces.

[LeftInTX]

18. It will come back in 2028!

[NewJeffCT]

22. Why is it blowing up?

The GOP and the media are going to point to the lower number of arrests & border crossings as proof that Trump shut the border down after Biden had opened it for 4 years.

I know that's not the whole truth, but will anybody in today's media environment push back on Team Trump?

[The Mouth]

10. "If we don't control the borders, the fascists will"

Atlantic magazine, 2019.

[wishstar]

2. Better to find asylum in Mexico than be sent back to worse places

"Migrants trying to apply for asylum in Mexico in January more than tripled compared to the monthly average from the previous year, according to an international official with knowledge of the numbers who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. Mexico's refugee agency has not yet published figures for January.

"All of these policies Trump is pushing are leading more people to seek international protection in Mexico," said Andrés Ramírez, former director of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid, which processes asylum cases.

Delgado was among hundreds of migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan and other countries gathering outside the refugee agency in Mexico City after Trump unleashed executive orders last month meant to slash access to asylum and militarize the border.

The Associated Press spoke to around a half-dozen people who had asylum appointments in the U.S. through the Biden-era app, CBP One, that Trump canceled on Inauguration Day. They were left stranded on the Mexican side of the border, their dreams of a legal pathway into the U.S. snuffed."


https://www.voanews.com/a/with-doors-closed-to-the-us-asylum-seekers-turn-a-new-life-in-mexico/7974697.html

[Crowman2009]

6. At least they won't have to learn to speak the language in the vast majority of situations.

Might be easier to get an education as well.

[LittleGirl]

9. and healthcare which we don't give them. nt

[Attilatheblond]

17. It's mighty quiet here in my borderlands neighborhood lately

And we have 500 troops newly transferred into the local army fort. Not sure what they're gonna be doing, since even the county sheriff had little to do but argue with a county supervisor of the same party. Maybe those newly arrived troops can hunt down all the rabid foxes roaming on the grounds of the fort. That would at least be a positive action to protect people around here.

[augyboston]

3. The way things are going...

The way things are going in this autocratic Christian Nationalist state with the implementation of Project 2025 it will be far more likely that the people crossing the border will be headed south instead of north!

[CaptainTruth]

5. Turn America into a shithole no one wants to come to...

...that seems to be Trump's plan.

[somsai]

7. Assuming the number caught is equal to the "got aways"

That is still a couple thousand a week, a hundred thousand a year.

Assumptions about how many make it through are difficult. Less traffic makes for higher percentages of arrests. The narcos took over the entire border business a decade ago, and human smuggling is only one facet of their business.

Higher priced crossovers are about guaranteed success. Mostly via driving with fake high quality IDs. The tunnels are reserved for the most valuable people or goods.

Corporate interests in the US are very pro illegal immigration. The "pull" factor is also very strong. Day labor wages here are at least 10X that paid in Honduras or Guatemala. Imagine what you would do for 10X your current income.

[4catsmom]

8. I wouldn't come here either

we're ten times worse than where they are coming from

[IbogaProject]

12. Things are tough there

And the income differential adds to the draw.

[Deep State Witch]

11. They'll Probably Start Catching Americans

Fleeing to Mexico.

[Attilatheblond]

19. Well, they have busted several Americans attempting to smuggle guns and ammo into Mexico

We have CBP 'checkpoints' a few miles north of the border on all roads going north. It seems like it would be a good idea to expand those to routes going south. Americans are the ones making money arming the cartels who are making life miserable and dangerous for people south of the border.

Pogo was right: We have met the enemy and it is us.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Oh oh...djt is going to fire everyone of the border patrol people now! They're not living up to the weekly quotas that

they all have! I wouldn't be one bit surprised before long, when djt and others impose quotas of some kind. And, sure one poster made a little fun of these people going after Americans before too long, it's not really funny, being that I suspect that it'll be a very scary and true thing that will happen to some Americans. The border patrol, desperate to catch someone, anybody, will nab some Americans...just wait and see.

[Bengus81]

14. Yeah...saw one number of 8,000 arrests and half were let go I guess over that

"legal citizen but can't prove it right here" thingy. How horrible for that NAZI Homan.

[Attilatheblond]

20. There have already been Navajo tribe members caught up and sent south.

Seems the CBP and Ice go by skin color too often here in AZ

[louis-t]

16. You don't understand. Orange idiot will say they closed the border.

No more immigrants. I'm a genius. Blah, blah....

[NewJeffCT]

21. That is EXACTLY what will happen

and Fox News and their clones will crow on & on about it

[BumRushDaShow]

23. But then they no longer have their "reality show" productions with Dr. Phil

or any other pseudo-doctor, to continually feed more meat to their base. There is a risk of breaking down doors of churches and dragging people out that might be unsettling to some (not all) of their evangelical supporters.

They do have the option now to manufacture AI "reality show" material, but they are rapidly losing a talking point.