EAGLE PASS, Texas — Within the last week, 158 unaccompanied migrant children were sent across the Rio Grande to the small town of Eagle Pass. Customs and Border Protection officials said the children were mostly between the ages of 5 and 17 and were from several countries in Central and South America.
Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers on Wednesday intercepted 57 unaccompanied migrant children in a single group of more than 200 migrants crossing the river.
Sources within CBP say the influx of unaccompanied children into the region in such a short period of time is a new trend not seen since late 2023.
“Since the Mexican government stopped migrants jumping on the Bestia train in December, the number of migrants has declined rapidly in Eagle Pass. Now it appears the dam is starting to break,” a source told Breitbart of Texas. Ta.
Immigrant children carry slips of paper with the phone numbers of their relatives in the United States, as evidenced by a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Texas DPS Highway Patrol spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivares. There are many. His post highlighted Wednesday's encounter with the largest group of migrant children this month.
Unaccompanied migrant children sometimes have contact information for relatives written on their arms or clothing, CBP sources said.
Unless the child is from Mexico, unaccompanied children are immediately transferred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where officials look for a sponsoring relative to assume custody of the child. As of Oct. 4, more than 6,000 unaccompanied children were in custody as staff worked to find sponsors in the United States, according to ORR.
The cost of detaining an unaccompanied migrant child in one of the 289 facilities and programs in 29 states funded by ORR varies from 1 per child, depending on the type of facility to which the migrant child is sent. Between $250 and $750 per day.
The cost of detaining migrant children is estimated to be more than $1 billion annually. According to ORR, the average length of detention is less than 60 days. The number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the Southwest border has skyrocketed under the Biden-Harris administration. According to ORR, fewer than 16,000 unaccompanied migrant children required agency referral services in fiscal year 2020. That number rose to more than 120,000 in the first year of the Biden-Harris administration.
Earlier this month, Texas DPS officers arrested 27 aliens of special interest who were part of a large immigrant group in Eagle Pass. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
The recent surge of immigrants to Eagle Pass is also concerning to law enforcement officials for other reasons. As Breitbart Texas reported, authorities are also experiencing an increase in the number of foreign nationals of special interest entering the country. Since Friday, five Iranian nationals, 19 Egyptian nationals, four Afghan nationals and five Turkish nationals have been arrested as they crossed the Rio Grande into a small border town in Texas. Olivarez, the Texas DPS spokeswoman, said several foreign nationals of special interest from Mali were among a group of more than 200 people crossing the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass on Wednesday.
According to CBP, nearly 250,000 immigrant arrests have occurred in the Border Patrol's Del Rio Sector. Sources say nearly 80 percent of all unrest in this area occurs within the city of Eagle Pass.
randy clark He is a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as Division Chief of Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol stations within the Del Rio, Texas area. Follow him at X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
