Idle buses, empty Border Patrol boats: Arrests for illegal crossings fall in the Rio Grande Valley [View all]

Source: AP

Updated 5:31 PM EST, February 14, 2025


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.

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. Associated Press journalists accompanying Border Patrol agents in an SUV and on speedboats that traversed 30 miles along the Rio Grande Valley and river for five hours Thursday didn’t encounter a single migrant.

Arrests, already at their lowest levels since 2019 when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said Friday they are currently about 350 a day, down from more than 1,500 daily in December, the last month of published data.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/border-immigration-texas-mexico-24b869192aab39075cb2b0b60b7b6649