Idle buses, empty Border Patrol boats: Arrests for illegal crossings fall in the Rio Grande Valley
by: VALERIE GONZALEZ, Associated Press
Posted: Feb 17, 2025 / 02:48 PM CST
Updated: Feb 17, 2025 / 03:04 PM CST
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.
Shelter for deported migrants in Tijuana ‘relatively empty’
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.
https://www.borderreport.com/news/idle-buses-empty-border-patrol-boats-arrests-for-illegal-crossings-fall-in-the-rio-grande-valley/
