Border agents come across multiple groups of migrants as Title 42 deadline looms

Border Patrol relying on air units, El Paso County Sheriff’s Office transportation vans as migrant surge intensifies in Far West Texas

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – At least three large groups of migrants have turned themselves in or have been apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in the past 24 hours east of El Paso. Drugs also were seized.

The first two events involved vehicles carrying dozens of migrants. The first incident near Van Horn resulted in the apprehension of 32 unauthorized foreign nationals. Agents near the Van Horn station also found more than 200 pounds of marijuana abandoned in the desert.

“Agents on foot patrol responded to a report of subjects walking in an area commonly used by smugglers,” U.S. Border Patrol Big Bend Sector Chief Sean McGoffin said. A helicopter crew guided the agents to the migrants, who were trying to hide in the brush, he said.

McGoffin tweeted photos showing several of the migrants wearing camouflage, which is typically supplied by smuggling organizations.

Big Bend Sector agents later apprehended another 28 migrants near Sierra Blanca, Texas.

Closer to El Paso, the Border Patrol took custody of at least 10 adults and children who crossed the Rio Grande on foot near Socorro, Texas. The agents were assisted by an air unit and El Paso County sheriff’s deputies, who provided transportation for the migrants, witnesses at the scene said.

Numerous apprehensions and surrenders involving groups of migrants coming over from Mexico are being reported in the past few days, as the Biden administration’s proposed rollback date of the Title 42 public health order approaches.

The rollback this Friday remained tied up in court, as a federal judge in Louisiana pondered extending an injunction that prevents the federal government from ending the policy that has allowed border agents to quickly expel newly arrived migrants since March 2020 to prevent the cross-border spread of COVID-19.