Don’t expect migrant caravans containing thousands of people to arrive at the Texas border at once, as migrants race against time to reach the US before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
Instead, cartels have decided to smuggle groups of 100 people across the international border, using a 100-kill method, Texas officials said.
Under pressure from incoming President Trump, Mexico’s new president has pledged to dismantle caravans of migrants before they reach the US southern border – already drive two groups of migrants apart.
This has forced criminal smuggling organizations to change their strategy.
“You’ll see these caravans form in the southern part of Mexico, and by the time they get to Mexico City or the central part of Mexico, they’ll break up,” Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told me to DailyMail. com monday.
“That’s when the smuggling organizations get involved, the cartels get involved and they’ll break them up into smaller groups. Some will go west, some will go north, which in our case would be Texas.”
Lt. Olivarez believes the large groups arriving in Eagle Pass in recent days are the remnants of migrant caravans.
The latest group arrived Sunday when 176 illegal immigrants entered Maverick County, near the border hotspot Eagle Pass.
A large group of 176 illegal immigrants crossed into Maverick County on Sunday, near the border hotspot, Eagle Pass
Texas officials believe these groups of more than 100 people are the remnants of migrant caravans that broke into Mexico before reaching the U.S. border
The U.S. Border Patrol considers any migrant group of more than 100 people a “large group.”
Sunday’s large group included single adults, family groups, children traveling alone without a parent or guardian and 11 so-called special interest aliens – from countries with which the US does not have good relations or that could pose a threat to national security.
Although these illegal immigrants are not arriving in large numbers, the same numbers of people are still coming through, Olivarez added.
‘When you have 1,000 people who all came along at the same time, it obviously generated a lot of national attention. They split the groups up so it looks like, “We’re doing something.” Ultimately, they do get across the border,” the DPS spokesperson explained.
Large groups also create an enforcement nightmare for U.S. Border Patrol.
Smugglers usually move the groups to abandoned areas at the border, using agency resources to take the migrants away
The sheer volume of resources needed to respond to the large groups often leaves other parts of the border without any coverage.
Encountering large groups at the border is a trend only seen at the border during the Biden administration.
According to Texas DPS, a large group of 289 illegal immigrants entered Maverick County around 3:30 a.m. on November 29.
The 289-person group seven included special interest aliens (SIAs) from Iran
According to Texas DPS, the group was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol
Before this, it was unheard of to see large groups crossing.
In Texas, police can take action to assist Border Patrol because of state laws that allow troopers to arrest illegal immigrants just for being on private property.
“Any time we are on a property and have permission from the landowner, who is willing to participate in criminal trespass, we can make arrests,” Olivarez said.
More than 80 migrants were arrested for trespassing during Sunday’s large group crossing.
As the clock ticks before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, Olivarez explained that his department is preparing for all scenarios, including a massive surge at the border.
“We’ve been doing what we call ‘mass migration response exercises,’ and this is where we send DPS units and National Guard soldiers into an area,” he said.
“We’ll storm that area and pretty much form a wall with our patrol cars. We are ready for any possible mass wave.’