Border Patrol Arrests Almost 300 Illegal Migrants in 24 Hours in Laredo, Texas

Richard Moorhead   |  

Oct 17, 2020

Customs and Border Patrol have reported arresting almost 300 illegal aliens in the area of Laredo Texas in one day this week, taking several groups of smuggled aliens into custody over 24 hours on Wednesday.

The south Texas city has emerged as a hub for human and drug smuggling after the coronavirus, becoming a target for smuggling operations after illegal transit was ground to a halt during the first months of the pandemic.

Four separate busts resulted in groups of unlawful aliens being taken into custody, with CBP arresting groups of 123, 13, 84, and 74 over an 18-hour period. The first two groups were discovered hiding in unsanitary conditions at a stash house in the city, and the latter appear to have been smuggled into the country in refrigerated trailers.

Authorities believe that the aliens paid criminal smugglers $5,000 each to be brought into the United States. Such mass entry of illegal aliens represents a potent public health threat to the American public in the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the aliens arrested in the Wednesday enforcement sweep was a sex offender convicted of crimes in the United States.

242 aliens were arrested in one enforcement operation alone at the end of September.

Drug and human smuggling cartel organizations appear to be targeting the city as a staging point for their operations, and they’re likely to continue doing so as more migrants seek to leave coronavirus recession-stricken Latin American countries for what they believe will be abundant opportunities in the United States.

Illegal aliens arrested have been subjected to swift ‘expulsion’ immigration action during the coronavirus, with DHS sending the migrants back to their countries in a process that avoids the convoluted, byzantine and notoriously politically correct immigration court system. Illegal traffic has declined considerably as a result, and DHS may have to consider utilizing the provisions indefinitely during a tentative Trump second term.