Updated:
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has reported that African and Middle Eastern nationals are among those crossing the Texas border illegally.
Troopers recently apprehended a group of 132 illegal immigrants in Maverick County, DPS wrote in a post on X.
“Within this group, Troopers found 32 unaccompanied children and minors, along with seven special interest immigrants from Iran and Angola,” the agency stated.
DPS Troopers working to secure the border as part of #OperationLoneStar recently encountered a large group of 134 migrants in Maverick County. Within this group, Troopers found 32 unaccompanied children and minors, along with seven special interest immigrants from Iran and… pic.twitter.com/XEqvRZhWqt
— Texas DPS (@TxDPS) October 21, 2024
Special interests aliens (SIAs) are defined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as noncitizens who potentially pose a national security risk to the United States, based on their travel patterns.
“Often such individuals or groups are employing travel patterns known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism,” the DHS said. “DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star (OLS) in March 2021 to combat illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and human trafficking.
“Since the launch of Operation Lone Star, the multi-agency effort has led to over 516,300 illegal immigrant apprehensions,” the DPS said. “In addition, OLS has resulted in more than 45,300 criminal arrests, with more than 39,400 felony charges reported.”
It seized over 505 million “lethal doses of fentanyl” during OLS, the DPS added.
As of June, illegal crossings in Texas had decreased by 74 percent because of OLS, according to the DPS.
Within Maverick County sits the city of Eagle Pass, Texas, which borders Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the Rio Grande.
In September 2023, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas, Jr. issued an emergency declaration in response to the inundation of illegal immigrants, stating that the approximately 30,000 city residents were overwhelmed.
“It has taken a toll on our local resources,” he said during a press conference.
“This is not normal,” he said. “And we shouldn’t have to be going through a situation like this in the United States.”
In particular, he said the influx has burdened community services such as law enforcement, the fire department, homeless shelters, and the local hospital system.
Abbott and other Republicans have blamed the Biden administration for its policies that ended border wall construction and stopped the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, that they say curbed most illegal immigration.
Despite its prior criticism of former President Donald Trump’s pushing for construction of a border wall, the Biden administration changed its stance in 2023, saying that more border wall had become a necessity.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas waived federal regulations to expedite the border wall’s construction.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States,” Mayorkas said.
Tom Ozimek and Caden Pearson contributed to this report.
