Border Patrol agents in Texas arrest illegal immigrants, an American citizen in separate busts

Border Patrol agents in Texas nabbed several illegal immigrants during two separate busts hours apart last week, authorities said Monday. 

The first set of arrests occurred on Friday when the McAllen Border Patrol Station (MCS) received an anonymous call alerting them of suspected migrants getting into a vehicle in Los Ebanos, U.S. Customs and Border Protections said. 

An agent found the vehicle and stopped the driver, who is an American citizen. Five passengers in the vehicle were illegal immigrants from Central America, authorities said. 

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All six were arrested and the vehicle was seized. 

Hours later, an MCS camera captured several people getting into a GMC Envoy near Hidalgo, Texas. A CBP helicopter spotted the vehicle. It came to a stop near a canal and the people in the vehicle fled, authorities said. 

Four migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras were arrested. The driver was not found. 

“Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) continues to leverage the support of our valued law enforcement partners at the federal, state, and local level to disrupt & dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) operating within the Rio Grande Valley region,” RGV Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez said in a statement. 

September migrant encounter numbers were a significant increase from the same month in recent years. In September 2021, there were 192,001 migrant encounters. Border agents encountered 57,674 migrants in September 2020 and 52,546 in September 2019.

CBP’s numbers also show that there were 20 known or suspected terrorists arrested at the southern border in September, bringing the total terror watch-list arrests at the border for fiscal year 2022 to 98. The number of terror watch-list arrests at the border for the last five years combined was 26.

Fox News’ Nate Foy and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.