N.America (US & Canada) articles and news

Bi-National Rescue of Sexual Assault Victim by CBP and Mexican Officials
Release Date: June 2, 2021
CALEXICO, Calif. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel from the Air and Marine Operations (AMO), Yuma Air Branch and the El Centro Sector Border Patrol rescued a woman reportedly being assaulted in the eastern desert near Calexico.

The incident occurred Monday morning at about 8 a.m., when the Yuma Air Branch crew were conducting aerial patrol operations east of Calexico. The aircrew spotted a woman being sexually assaulted on the Mexico side of the International Boundary Fence approximately 12 miles east of downtown Calexico. The aircrew activated the loudspeaker and sirens of their EC120 to scare off the assailant and observed him running away from the woman’s location.


The aircrew notified Calexico Station of the incident and landed the helicopter in an immediate response to make contact with the woman. The woman, who was bleeding profusely told crewmembers she had been shot and had a noticeable head wound. Agents responded to the location to assist the air crew in providing medical attention through the border fence in efforts to control the woman’s bleeding.

The El Centro Sector’s Foreign Operations Branch (FOB) and officials with the Mexican authorities were advised of the situation. At approximately 8:40 a.m., Mexican authorities arrived on scene and continued to provide medical assistance to the woman. The woman was then taken to a hospital in Mexico.

El Centro Sector FOB stated that a male subject found fleeing the scene was arrested by Mexican authorities.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/bi-national-rescue-sexual-assault-victim-cbp-and-mexican-officials

Proud American
18h ·
@USBPChiefRGV: RGV has encountered nearly 60 large groups composed of more than 100 migrants since October.
The most recent large group was in La Joya, Texas and consisted of 198 migrants, to include 50 unaccompanied children.


Congresswoman Kat Cammack
I met this little girl last night at midnight when she and those in her group were picked up for processing. She was terrified. The man holding her told me and my colleagues that he was her father and they had come from Honduras. Today as I toured the Donna, TX processing facility where they hold children and families, I asked officials to track down this little girl to see what else they had found out.

Ten minutes later, Border Patrol showed me the paperwork that confirmed what we had suspected—the man pictured above was not her father—because he wasn't a relative at all. He just admitted to using her to get into the U.S. That man will be sent back but this little girl remains here, alone. This is called "recycling children" where young kids are used as pawns to shepherd adults across the border and this has become a daily occurrence here in SW Texas.
Our border agents are begging for you to extend Title 42, reinstate MPP, and finish the wall. This is both a humanitarian and national security crisis.
President Biden: DO YOUR JOB.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EyyiV-jWUAMgcjB?format=jpg&name=small

kvs wrote:This human misery is what results from cynical policies of politicians.

Harris, in Guatemala, tells potential migrants they will be turned back: 'Do not come'

Harris defended not visiting the US border, saying she is not interested in 'grand gestures'

While Harris and the administration have emphasized "root causes" in Central America like poverty, climate and violence as the reason for the spike, Giammattei had also pointed to a change in message to migrants with the new administration.

"The message changed too: 'We're going to reunite families, we're going to reunite children,'" he told CBS News. "The very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States."
"We asked the United States government to send more of a clear message to prevent more people from leaving," he said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/harris-guatemala-potential-migrants-turned-back-do-not-come

THE BORDER IS OPEN!
James Levinson@james_levinson
The latest on the issues regarding the southern border and the record 180,034 migrant encounters in the month of May.
@GriffJenkins
live on
@SpecialReport
with
@BretBaier

https://twitter.com/i/status/1403136574334898179


James Levinson@james_levinson
Another group of 55 Venezuelans crossed the Rio grande into Del Rio just now as Gov Abbott is set to host a border summit in the city of Del Rio moments from now.
@GriffJenkins
reporting in the river on
@FoxBusiness
@FoxNews
https://twitter.com/i/status/1403133128777076738


Imagine having to share inhumane living conditions with over 100 people!
#BorderSecurity #stashhouse Police cars revolving light
@mylaredopd

Harsh Reality look inside a #stashhouse discovered today by #USBP Laredo Sector! Down-pointing triangle
@USBPChiefLRT

https://twitter.com/i/status/1403111717878517760


EXCLUSIVE: Texas to Build Its Own Border Barriers, Says Governor
DEL RIO, Texas — Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Breitbart Texas the State will immediately begin building border barriers in areas where migrants can easily cross the Rio Grande border with Mexico. The barriers will, in part, enable state law enforcement to arrest migrants for violations of state law.

He said they are hearing from local residents and elected and law enforcement officials that they are seeing things they have never seen before.

“They’re seeing a lot of very bad dangerous people come across the border,” Abbott continued. “People that they are afraid of encountering, people who are causing damage to their fences, their livestock, their crops, their neighborhoods, and their homes.”

The governor explained that the barriers serve two functions in the battle against illegal border crossings. The first being physical deterrence. The second, “If they (migrants) move or interfere with that barrier, they have committed several crimes.”

Those crimes include criminal mischief, vandalism of state property or local government property, and criminal trespass.

In addition, the recent declaration of a State of Emergency by the State of Texas causes the penalties for these crimes to increase by one level.

“That means up to 180 days in jail,” Abbott continued. “Something that may be a Class B misdemeanor right now, turned into a class A misdemeanor. And so they can get into a lot of trouble.”

“There’s even potential for state jail felonies for some of these crimes,” he explained. “So they can wind up in jail for a long time.”

Abbott said they have identified more than 1,000 jail cells that can be used to hold arrested migrants. They will begin actively working with local and state officials to identify more space. He said they may consider building additional jail space in the form of soft-sided facilities.

To help facilitate this effort, Governor Abbott teamed up with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to call on fellow governors across the nation to provide assistance in the ongoing border crisis.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/06/10/exclusive-texas-to-build-its-own-border-barriers-says-governor/

Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA·
4h
I just spoke to several people in the group. They tell me they are all from Ecuador and left because of conditions back home. I asked them if any of them heard US VP Kamala Harris’ message to not come to the border right now. The adults all said no. “No escuchamos”. IN OTHER WORDS NO, THEY HAVE NOT HEARD THAT.
@FoxNews

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E38zuocWYAM5BjT?format=jpg&name=small


Gulf Cartel human smuggling stash house with 107 people crammed together inside in the sweltering heat. IN ALTON, TEXAS
Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA·
1h
Live in the Rio Grande Valley today as a group of Ecuadorian migrants emerge from the brush behind us and wait for Border Patrol to arrive. We also came across an apparent Gulf Cartel human smuggling stash house with 107 people crammed together inside in the sweltering heat.


https://twitter.com/i/status/1404945102007590912


Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA
Once again, within minutes of arriving in La, Joya, TX this AM, we encountered a group of 30-40 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, & Guatemala. Border Patrol removes all their shoelaces so they don’t try to hurt themselves in custody if they find out they can’t stay in the U.S

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E37MszNWUAA-0th?format=jpg&name=360x360


Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA·
Jun 14
Wild horses in the Rio Grande here in Mission, TX. Pretty cool. Brutally hot & humid out here & it’s not even the summer months yet.


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E33eaNiXEAgn5ys?format=jpg&name=small

Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA·
Jun 14
NEW: We witnessed a high speed pursuit of a human smuggler who had 12 illegal immigrants in his vehicle. He led TX State Troopers & Border Patrol on a dangerous 40 minute chase before he crashed into the front of a house in a quiet residential neighborhood in McAllen.
The smuggler bailed out of the vehicle and was caught by State Troopers & Border Patrol. He will be charged with felony evading & human smuggling.
@TxDPS
tells me there has been a sharp increase in the amount of these smuggler pursuits, with 370+ happening since March.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E32epdjWYAEzVxJ?format=jpg&name=360x360

A lot of money to be made smuggling people sadly... they hand over their money so the smuggler gets paid no matter what the result...

Charlotte Cuthbertson@charlottecuthbo·
Jun 21
BORDER THREAD: Border Patrol stops train near Uvalde that are coming from Mexico via border town Eagle Pass in Texas.
-- 21 Mexican illegal alien males drop out of grain hopper.
-- 4 Honduran males hiding in other cars.
They'll be returned to Mexico today or tomorrow and it's likely many will try again in a few days
This is still the 21 Mexican male illegal aliens coming out the bottom of the grain hopper. Many of them said they were trying to get to Houston.
Train is heading to San Antonio.

The grain hoppers are smooth inside, and often there's no way out as they're locked at the top and the bottom is accessed from the inside. Gets hot in there.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1407112110891536389

‘Do Not Travel Here,’ Says Mexican Border State Governor amid Cartel Violence
A Mexican state governor issued a warning about traveling to the border, citing recent spikes in cartel violence. The alert comes soon after Gulf Cartel gunmen killed 15 innocent civilians in Reynosa and Los Zetas kidnapped more than 100 individuals in Nuevo Laredo.

The warning came during a business panel discussion in Monterrey, when Nuevo Leon Governor Jaime “El Bronco” Rodriguez Calderon warned against traveling to the region, particularly Reynosa.

“It is public knowledge what is happening in Reynosa,” El Bronco said. “The recommendation for the people of Nuevo Leon is to avoid visiting unless urgent. To wait for things to calm down, which should be in a few days.”

Last week a strike team of Gulf Cartel gunmen killed 15 innocent civilians in a daytime raid. State police forces managed to kill four gunmen in response.

El Bronco also spoke briefly about the current situation in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, where gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas kidnapped more than 100 victims traveling to and from Nuevo Leon.

During those comments, El Bronco apologized to the public for previously stating that authorities had rescued 16 victims. That information was wrong and no rescue had taken place.

“An apology, I erroneously said we had rescued them. No,” El Bronco said.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/06/25/do-not-travel-here-says-mexican-border-state-governor-amid-cartel-violence/


map, 160 miles of Texas / Mexico border to avoid.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Nuevo+Laredo,+Tamaulipas,+Mexico/Reynosa,+Tamaulipas,+Mexico/@27.2529618,-98.8808512,8z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x8661187f41c4c78f:0x735d444f3ed3e91c!2m2!1d-99.549573!2d27.4779362!1m5!1m1!1s0x866509e70b1ab591:0x4568c85f5cba4884!2m2!1d-98.2978951!2d26.0508406

‘Do You Hear Their Screams?’ Protesters Ask During Harris’ Border Visit

While Vice President Harris visited the border in El Paso, newly appointed Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz spoke with concerned residents in the Del Rio Sector where agents report a 457 percent increase in border apprehensions, Breitbart Texas’s Randy Clark reported.

The chief listened to concerns expressed by the residents of Del Rio, Texas — concerns that are very similar to those expressed by the Rio Grande Valley residents.

“I’m not worried about the family units that give up; I am concerned with mostly groups of males that are screaming in Spanish at me in my back yard,” one Del Rio resident told Ortiz. “I have daughters and I am worried for their safety.”

With four months to go in the current fiscal year, Border Patrol agents apprehend 897,213 migrants. Of those, more than 605,000 took place in the five Texas-based border sectors. This represents more than two-thirds of all southwest border migrant apprehensions, according to statistics provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/06/26/do-you-hear-their-screams-protesters-ask-during-harris-border-visit/




PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila — Mexican authorities responded to the headless body of a young migrant girl who they believe drowned in the river and then was partially eaten by alligators. The discovery took place Wednesday near the Morelos neighborhood by fishermen on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande. (Too graphic to post.)




EXCLUSIVE: Migrants Drown Trying to Elude Border Patrol Agents

As reported by Breitbart Texas, migrant deaths are on the rise due to the increased level of illegal cross-border traffic. In addition to drownings, migrants are succumbing to the high temperatures across South Texas. In the Del Rio Sector, the Border Patrol has seen more migrant deaths in the first eight months of this fiscal year than in all of 2020.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/06/25/exclusive-migrants-drown-trying-to-elude-border-patrol-agents/




Mexican Cartel Gunmen Cross into Texas Brandishing Weapons
Mexican cartel gunmen crossed into Texas and brandished weapons in front of a family fishing the Rio Grande. The gunmen were escorting a drug load and are believed to be part of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas.

The case took place this week in Laredo when an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent was angling with his family, a prepared statement from the Laredo Sector revealed.
Three gunmen in tactical clothing crossed the river carrying small backpacks and firearms. The gunmen encountered the family and waved their weapons as they waded back to Mexico. According to the USBP statement, the backpacks are believed to have contained narcotics. The family was not physically harmed.

The incident comes as CDN-Los Zetas continue to exert full operational control of the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo. They routinely send gunmen in armored SUVs throughout the city. Those gunmen go by the name Hell’s Troops or Tropa del Infierno.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/06/23/mexican-cartel-gunmen-cross-into-texas-brandishing-weapons/

Uprooted again: Venezuela migrants cross US border in droves

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — Marianela Rojas huddles in prayer with her fellow migrants, a tearful respite after trudging across a slow-flowing stretch of the Rio Grande and nearly collapsing onto someone’s backyard lawn, where, seconds before, she stepped on American soil for the first time.

“I won’t say it again,” interrupts a U.S. Border Patrol agent, giving orders in Spanish for Rojas and a dozen others to get into an idling detention van. “Only passports and money in your hands. Everything else — earrings, chains, rings, watches — in your backpacks. Hats and shoelaces too.”

It’s a frequent scene across the U.S.-Mexico border at a time of swelling migration. But these aren’t farmers and low-wage workers from Mexico or Central America, who make up the bulk of those crossing. They’re bankers, doctors and engineers from Venezuela, and they’re arriving in record numbers as they flee turmoil in the country with the world’s largest oil reserves and pandemic-induced pain across South America.
Two days after Rojas crossed, she left detention and rushed to catch a bus out of the Texas town of Del Rio. Between phone calls to loved ones who didn’t know where she was, the 54-year-old recounted fleeing hardship in Venezuela a few years ago, leaving a paid-off home and once-solid career as an elementary school teacher for a fresh start in Ecuador.

But when the little work she found cleaning houses dried up, she decided to uproot again — this time without her children.

“It’s over, it’s all over,” she said into the phone recently, crying as her toddler grandson appeared shirtless on screen. “Everything was perfect. I didn’t stop moving for one second.”

Last month, 7,484 Venezuelans were encountered by Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border — more than all 14 years for which records exist.

The surprise increase has drawn comparisons to the midcentury influx of Cubans fleeing Fidel Castro’s communist rule. It’s also a harbinger of a new type of migration that has caught the Biden administration off guard: pandemic refugees.
Many of the nearly 17,306 Venezuelans who have crossed the southern border illegally since January had been living for years in other South American countries, part of an exodus of nearly 6 million Venezuelans since President Nicolás Maduro took power in 2013.

While some are government opponents fearing harassment and jailing, the vast majority are escaping long-running economic devastation marked by blackouts and shortages of food and medicine.

With the pandemic still raging in many parts of South America, they have had to relocate again. Increasingly, they’re being joined at the U.S. border by people from the countries they initially fled to — even larger numbers of Ecuadorians and Brazilians have arrived this year — as well as far-flung nations hit hard by the virus, like India and Uzbekistan.


https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-immigration-business-coronavirus-pandemic-health-72e16118a21cf9ae3d0d4c9204f24643

Like many of the dozens of Venezuelans The Associated Press spoke to this month in Del Rio, 27-year-old Lis Briceno had already migrated once before. After graduating with a degree in petroleum engineering, she couldn’t get hired in the oil fields near her hometown of Maracaibo without declaring her loyalty to Venezuela’s socialist leadership. So she moved to Chile a few years ago, finding work with a technology company.

But as anti-government unrest and the pandemic tanked Chile’s economy, sales plunged and her company shuttered.

Briceno sold what she could — a refrigerator, a telephone, her bed — to raise the $4,000 needed for her journey to the U.S. She filled a backpack and set out with a heart lock amulet she got from a friend to ward off evil spirits.


Briceno said that if she had stayed in Venezuela, she would earn the equivalent of $50 a month — barely enough to scrape by.

“The truth is,” says Briceno, hustling to catch a bus to Houston where her boyfriend landed a well-paying oil industry job, “it’s better to wash toilets here than being an engineer over there.”

Bill Melugin@BillFOXLA
Border agents on the ground here in the RGV have been telling us this since last week. Lots of COVID infections in the illegal immigrants they’re apprehending, especially from Nicaragua. We’ve noticed most agents trying to keep distance & wearing N-95s.

https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1412432889698979841/YHDhOWY7?format=jpg&name=small



Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA
·
Jul 7

Live from La Joya, TX where we witnessed the most illegal crossings we’ve ever seen in one morning here. Over 150+. Migrant holding facilities have had 7,000+ COVID infections since April, and 5 foreigners w/ serious criminal records were arrested here in RGV over the holiday.


https://twitter.com/i/status/1412843283554910208

A few days ago, a cougar was sighted in a small town about 30 miles from where I live. All that  area consists of big cattle ranches, the Brazos river, and country like this around the river, except this photo is about 60 miles east of where the cougar was spotted. & @ the area where the cougar was spotted, there's a lot of mesquite trees in the pastures, and big pecan trees on the river.





Cougar attacks and kills 12-year-old boy in Oaxaca

The boy's community has organized a hunt for the animal

Published on Friday, August 6, 2021

A young boy has died after a cougar attacked him in Guadalupe Siete Cerros, a community in San Francisco Chapulapa, located in the Cañada region of Oaxaca.

Local media outlets reported that Gabriel Trovamala, 12, went out into the fields to check the crops on August 1 when he was attacked. Trovamala, a member of the Mazateca indigenous community, died of internal bleeding.

Local residents said there have been attacks against livestock and one adult, who was unharmed. They attribute all the attacks to the same animal.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cougar-attacks-and-kills-12-year-old-boy-in-oaxaca/

3,000 flee narco violence in Coalcomán, Michoacán; military refuses to intervene

Another area 'dragged into the war between cartels'

Hundreds of families — and counting — in the Michoacán community of Coalcomán have been displaced by narco violence in the past week as cartels continue fighting for territory in the Tierra Caliente region.

Local and religious authorities say the number of refugees has grown exponentially in recent days, and social media posts have shown entire families leaving their homes on foot with nothing but a few suitcases.

Authorities estimate that around 600 families, or 3,000 people, have been displaced from rural areas of the municipality in recent days. About 120 are currently lodged in the municipal capital in a small auditorium that has been converted to a shelter.

People are fleeing not just because of the armed confrontations between cartels, but also due to the scarcity that the violence has caused. Electricity, water, phone and internet services have all been compromised and food is running short, since armed groups have blocked the roads into and out of the area.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/3000-flee-narco-violence-in-coalcoman-michoacan-military-refuses-to-intervene/

This is the size of a caravan, in one day.


Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings
@USBPChiefRGV
With nearly 4K encounters in one day, #RGV agents apprehended the highest number in recorded history.

RGV Sector continues to lead #USBP in apprehensions nationwide to include criminal migrant arrests.

#BorderSecurity is #NationalSecurity.