According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office, the landing occurred around noon on April 20.

Video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by @OCLiberator shows roughly 20 people fleeing the overcrowded vessel after it pulled up to a small dock in Newport Bay.

By the time deputies responded, everyone was already gone, the Sheriff’s Office said.

A witness told NewsNation affiliate KTLA that several vehicles were apparently staging near tennis courts, waiting for the boat to arrive.

“I saw a van pull up and people jump in, and away it went,” Joe Thompson told KTLA Orange County Bureau Chief Chip Yost.

Five days earlier, video captured a boat charging ashore at a beach in Carlsbad, coming dangerously close to a surfer and unloading roughly a dozen suspected migrants.

The Orange County Sheriff, citing government statistics, says the number of maritime smuggling events in California has more than doubled in recent years, from 308 in 2020 to 736 in 2023. Authorities are calling for changes in state and federal laws to give authorities more power to stop smugglers from reaching land.

The operations occasionally end in tragedy.

In May 2023, eight people died when two suspected migrant smuggling boats overturned off the coast of Black's Beach in San Diego.

The most efficient way to spot would-be migrants at sea is the Coast Guard’s fleet of HC-144 Ocean Sentries and the C-27J Spartans. Flying at about 4,000 feet, crewmen eyeball the water and tiny islands looking for Florida-bound boats.

Sometimes they help surface ships intercept migrants. Other times they help the migrants, themselves.

“Just cruisin’ along and there’s two dudes standing on the rocks,” said Aviation maintenance technician James Abel. “We were able to drop a can … with some water and some food and a radio.”

He says announcements discouraging migrants from making the dangerous trip may have kept many out of danger. Even so, Abel says the people in charge of those boats are often professional smugglers who aren’t worried about getting caught.

They’re more worried about the weather and timing their journeys during times of calmer seas.

Shannon Pollard and Amy Lennen are facing charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine while armed with a firearm. The charges stem from seizures at a public storage facility and a home in San Diego of 46.1 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,493 fentanyl pills, four AR-15 rifles, two AK-47 rifles, a .22-caliber gun, a disabled grenade and multiple stolen passports and drivers’ licenses last November.

The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating the women after an informant allegedly told agents Lennen offered to sell methamphetamine at $1,300 a pound to a known narcotics distributor, federal court documents show.

According to the informant, Lennen told the distributor a woman named Natalie who supplied her with the drugs “recruits children to body-carry fentanyl” and other drugs through a the port of entry from Mexico. Records show the DEA also contacted the Carlsbad (California) Police Department after agents learned it was already investigating an illicit drug supplier that they believed was Pollard.  

Investigators obtained a court order to place a tracking device on a blue Volvo driven by Lennen and identified two addresses – a storage facility in Oceanside and a rental house in San Diego – as possible repositories of drugs.

Agents and local law enforcement raided both locations on Nov. 3 and Nov. 8, respectively, allegedly finding caches of drugs, firearms, ammunition, documents, an ounce of heroin and 26 Xanax pills, court documents show.

A complaint affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleges Pollard leased both properties under the alias of Nathalie Flores. Agents arrested Pollard during the search of the rental home for being in violation of her probation on a previous federal charge, records show. Lennen was arrested in February and Pollard re-arrested on the drugs and guns charges.

Both women have pleaded not guilty, waived indictment and are awaiting trial.

Federal and local law enforcement officials in San Diego last year took part in a two-month operation to stem a surge of fentanyl and other hard drugs along the border. Operation Blue Lotus yielded 4,721 pounds of fentanyl and led to the arrest of 200 smugglers, traffickers and dealers, according to the DEA.

“We are an epicenter for fentanyl trafficking into the United States and we know the immense responsibility that we bear to address this crisis,” said Randy Grossman, who was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California at the time and has since retired to private practice. “Every milligram of fentanyl we seize, every smuggler, trafficker and dealer we bring to justice means less fatal doses on the streets of San Diego and beyond.”

The average truck wait at the Ysleta port of entry was eight hours on Thursday – a far cry from the usual 50- to 80-minute crossing time. The wait time at the Santa Teresa (New Mexico) Port of Entry that has become an alternative was 140 minutes – about four times normal.

Mexican Chamber of Industry Board Member Thor Salayandia said the delays so far have cost the border industry $130 million to $135 million. That includes overtime pay for drivers, unfulfilled deliveries, and additional warehousing costs.

“The economic situation in the city will get complicated if this continues. This creates uncertainty among investors and (slows) expansion. And we don’t know when this will end,” Salayandia said. “We are talking to business interests in the United States to talk to Texas so that this doesn’t continue. We should be talking about speeding up border crossings, procuring better technology (at ports of entry) instead of this.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Saturday informed industry stakeholders Texas DPS was conducting enhanced safety inspections on trucks coming across the Ysleta port. CBP since last Monday expanded hours of operation at Santa Teresa and at the Marcelino Serna commercial port of entry in Tornillo, Texas, to alleviate the delays.

DPS has not responded to KTSM and Border Report media inquiries about why the enhanced inspections started and when they might end.

Texas has implemented them in the past (2023 and 2021) coinciding with migrant surges in the region. CBP migrant encounters fell in the El Paso Sector in March, but trains carrying thousands of migrants arrived in Juarez late last month.

A few weeks earlier, large groups of migrants gathered along the Rio Grande and at least two confrontations – or riots, as state prosecutors called them – with the Texas Army National Guard were reported March 21 and April 12.

Sitting in the sweltering cab of his semi on Thursday afternoon, Fernando Javier Olivas braced for another hours-long wait to get his cargo from Juarez to El Paso through the Ysleta port.

“This doesn’t just affect us (in Juarez), but also people over there in El Paso,” the Juarez truck driver said. “(But) we have to abide by the rules and wait here several hours. It’s lost time, it’s getting up very early every day. Yes, it’s affecting us a lot.”

Olivas said he was caught last year, too, in the long lines caused by Texas safety inspections.

“I’ve been here three hours and haven’t advanced at all. It’s not the first time. Last year, it was the same thing. We spent hours in line. It’s because of the migrants that are here. It is affecting us all, not just here in Mexico, but El Paso is also affected,” he said.

The Baja California Attorney General’s Office confirmed Friday the bodies were located in La Bocana, about 130 miles south of San Diego, California.

Jack Carter Rhoad, Jake Robinson and Callum Robinson were last seen April 27. Their last known location was San Miguel Beach in Mexico.

Evidence discovered on beach

Police confirmed that the three men were driving a white Chevrolet pickup truck, which has been recovered by police. Police also discovered a cell phone and tents along the beach where the three men were last seen.

María Elena Andrade Ramírez, Baja California’s chief public prosecutor, said evidence found along with the abandoned tents was somehow linked to three suspects. Those three people have been arrested in connection to the three men's disappearance, Mexican police said.

"At this moment, a team of investigators is in the location where it seems they were seen for the last time, where tents were found along with some evidence that could be related to these three people included in the investigation,” Andrade Ramírez said Thursday.

Robinson's, Rhoad reported missing

Rhoad and the Robinson brothers were officially reported missing Monday after they never arrived at their Airbnb and Callum Robinson didn't show up for work.

"We do not know what condition they are in," Andrade Ramírez said. "All lines of investigation are open at this time. We cannot rule anything out until we find them."

Callum Robinson posted multiple pictures to his Instagram account at locations in northern Baja California, including a popular surf spot called KM 38 Surf Point and a restaurant called La Hoguera.

The last photo he posted showed the men at San Miguel Beach about 70 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana.

On Wednesday, the missing Australians' mother, Debra Robinson, posted on a local community Facebook page an appeal for helping in finding her sons, Jake and Callum.

Robinson said one of her sons, Callum, is diabetic.

Andrade Ramírez said her office was in contact with Australian and U.S. officials. But she suggested that the time that had passed might make it harder to find them.

“Unfortunately, it wasn't until the last few days that they were reported missing. So, that meant that important hours or time was lost,” she said.

The area where these men vanished is known as a hotspot for cartel violence.

'Hotspot' for cartel violence

Víctor Clark Alfaro, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana and professor at San Diego State University, says through the end of March, the Baja California’s Attorney General’s Office was investigating 415 homicides in Tijuana.

By comparison, Ciudad Juárez, just south of El Paso, Texas, had 219, and León, Guanajuato had 152.

"Two groups with organized crime are in dispute for the region generating violence. On average, six murders take place daily, all revenge killings for the most part," Clark Alfaro said. "There's no glimpse of a solution in the short term, and it shows signs of getting worse and more intense."

In 2015, two Australian surfers, Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, were killed in western Sinaloa state, across the Gulf of California — also known as the Sea of Cortez— from the Baja peninsula. Authorities say they were victims of highway bandits. Three suspects were arrested in that case.

NewsNation affiliate Border Report contributed to this report.

Wednesday’s charges stem from an investigation started last month after authorities in Eagle Pass, Texas, received reports of vehicles converging around a semi-truck trailer parked in a business lot.

Border Patrol agents were first on the scene and watched as a green Chevrolet Tahoe dropped off passengers who went on to get inside the trailer, according to a criminal complaint filed April 5 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

The green Tahoe returned less than half an hour later to drop off more people. Homeland Security Investigations agents, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Maverick County Sheriff’s deputies mobilized and arrived in time to see multiple individuals take cover underneath the trailer and some trying to get into a hidden compartment, according to the complaint.

A Nissan Altima parked next to the trailer took off at high speed and was chased down by DPS troopers. A driver identified as Jesus Angel Martinez was taken into custody. Records show that Maverick County deputies tracked down the green Tahoe separately and arrested driver Francisco Javier Vasquez without incident.

Authorities took the drivers and 27 migrants found in or near the trailer to a U.S. Border Patrol station for investigation. Border agents remained on the scene and later watched a white Toyota Corolla approach the trailer, with one of the occupants getting down to approach the vehicle. The Toyota left and agents followed it to the local Motel 6.

Records show border agents watching the Motel 6 saw the individuals come out two hours later, board the Toyota and begin to drive away. A Maverick County deputy stopped the vehicle for a traffic infraction; HSI agents arrived, talked to the occupants and took them to the Border Patrol station.

The criminal complaint alleges that the two men identified as Joshua Dorsh and Troy Allen Slaughter volunteered to tell investigators that they would be paid $10,000 to transport migrants in the trailer from Eagle Pass to Houston. Both men said this would have been their third time transporting unauthorized foreign nationals in trailers to Houston, according to the complaint. The documents don't identify the person or party paying the men.

Vasquez and Martinez allegedly said they would be paid between $1,500 and $3,000 just for ferrying migrants from various locations to the parked trailer, the complaint alleges.

Wednesday’s indictment charges Dorsh, Slaughter, Martinez and Vasquez with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and one count of transportation of illegal aliens while placing lives in jeopardy. The latter refers to transporting the migrants in a locked trailer box over long distances, a practice that has led to multiple migrant deaths.

Lucas recently used his X (formerly Twitter) platform to say migrants with legal work permits from cities like Denver and New York City are welcome in Kansas City. However, local and state lawmakers, including GOP Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have criticized the mayor’s comments, characterizing them as irresponsible.

Now, state lawmakers have threatened to keep funding from the city should it allow migrants to come to Kansas City in search of work.

Bloomberg reported in mid-April that Lucas has been in contact with Denver and New York’s mayors, offering Kansas City as a landing spot for migrants seeking work.

“We need a lot more employees,” Lucas told Bloomberg. “If there are people who are willing and ready to work, then I believe there could be a place for them.”

Denver has seen the highest number of migrants per capita sent from the U.S. southern border by GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The city has hosted numerous clinics to get migrants qualified to work and has also paid for plane tickets for those seeking a new life elsewhere, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services previously told NewsNation.

The spokesman did not immediately respond to an email on Thursday seeking comment on the mayor of Kansas City’s request.

However, since Lucas’ social media posts, Missouri officials have criticized the mayor’s open invitation. In a letter to Lucas on April 18, Bailey called Lucas’ comments “wildly inappropriate” and “dangerous.”

He also pointed to a Missouri law that makes it illegal to “knowingly transport” those in the U.S. illegally into the state, which he says the mayor’s open invitation welcomes.

“Make no mistake, my office will do everything in its power to take legal action against any person or entity found to be in violation of these statutes,” Bailey wrote.

Meanwhile, the Missouri legislature has threatened to strip Kansas City of state funding should it become a sanctuary city, the Kansas City Star reported this week.

However, Lucas previously said that his offer to welcome migrants with legal work permits was the first step toward Kansas City moving to become a sanctuary city.

“There is nothing that has been proposed that suggests we are a sanctuary city,” Lucas said, according to the Star. “There is nothing that has been proposed that suggests that this city is funding or in some conspiracy to help create more illegal immigration.”

Bloomberg reported that Lucas would like to have a clearer picture of what welcoming new arrivals to Kansas City could look like soon after Memorial Day. He said the city is considering how it could help migrants with temporary housing and other training, including language services.

The site also reported that Kansas City has allotted $1 million for housing, health care and job training for immigrants and migrants.

According to a study compiled by J.H. Cullum Clark of the Bush Institute-Southern Methodist University Economic Growth Initiative, Kansas City ranks as the 23rd top metropolitan area for migrants moving within the United States.

Bloomberg reported that Kansas City’s economy could be attractive to blue-collar workers seeking manufacturing or construction jobs. Lucas said that the effort to bring migrants in from other cities could lighten the load for officials in Denver and New York, which, along with Chicago, has seen the largest number of migrants sent from the border.

As of late March, Kansas City had an unemployment rate of 3.5%, which is slightly higher than Missouri's March jobless rate of 3.3%.

Yet local officials remain concerned that the mayor may push for sanctuary city status for Kansas City. Councilman Nathan Willett recently proposed an ordinance that would assure the Missouri General Assembly that the city was not moving toward sanctuary city status, the Kansas Star reported.

“Right now, in Jefferson City, because of the mayor’s comments in the past week or so, they believe our intentions are becoming a sanctuary city,” Willett said last month. “I know that that’s not what I want. I know that’s not what you want. We need to firmly communicate that.”

"The Biden asylum rule impermissibly limits the right to seek asylum for many people and compels them to wait in foreseeably dangerous and inhumane conditions in Mexico," according to the report, "'We Couldn't Wait': Digital Metering at the US-Mexico Border."

To reduce irregular immigration at the U.S. border, the Biden administration began requiring the use of the app to schedule appointments in May 2023 when Title 42 was lifted.

"The fundamental right of all people to seek asylum in another country, and to be granted refugee protection after proving fear of persecution on specific grounds, is provided for in U.S. law and in international law binding on the United States," the report released Wednesday says.

The 68-page report accuses the U.S. and Mexican governments of "digital metering."

Metering was a term coined during the Trump administration when limits were placed on the number of asylum-seekers processed daily at U.S. ports of entry, and there were increases in the number of migrants turned back to Mexico to wait.

“The Biden and López Obrador administrations are knowingly exposing migrants to persecution at the hands of cartels that systematically target migrants for kidnapping, extortion, and sexual assault,” said Ari Sawyer, U.S. border researcher at Human Rights Watch. “U.S. and Mexican governments should stop forcing migrants to wait in Mexico and should stop collaborating on rights-abusive immigration policies.”

Wednesday's report follows a report released last week by National Immigration Forum, in coordination with several other groups, that also recommended changes to the CBP One app system.

The Human Rights Watch report is based on interviews with 128 asylum-seekers, shelter workers and migrant service providers in August and September 2023. Interviews were conducted throughout Mexico and the border region, including Tamaulipas and Eagle Pass, Texas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials offer 1,450 appointments daily via the CBP One app at these ports of entry:

• Arizona: Nogales
• Texas: Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, Laredo, and El Paso
• California: Calexico and San Ysidro

"Use of the CBP One app to schedule appointments at land ports of entry has increased CBP’s capacity to process migrants more efficiently and orderly while cutting out unscrupulous smugglers who endanger and profit from vulnerable migrants," according to the agency's website.

The report says the app "creates additional barriers to access for those seeking asylum, particularly for certain groups." It cites a lack of cellphones by many asylum-seekers due to high costs, as well as a lack of Wi-Fi access in much of Mexico.

The report also cites that use of the app has spurred cartel violence toward asylum-seekers.

It says Mexican cartel operatives charge upwards of $500 per migrant who has received an appointment via the CBP One app in order for them to get "permission" to cross the Rio Grande from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo, Texas, for their appointment.

The cartel even wanted shelter workers in Nuevo Laredo "to carry out the extortion." But instead, many shelters closed, leaving thousands of migrants living on the streets, according to the report.

Taxis and other transportation providers are also extorted by cartels and forced to report asylum-seekers, according to the report.

"The cartel also kidnaps migrants directly from the bus terminal in Nuevo Laredo. Taxi and
rideshare drivers in Nuevo Laredo are reportedly forced to participate in a WhatsApp group
they share with cartel operatives where they must notify the cartel when they have migrant
passengers and turn migrants over to the cartel when asked," the report found.

“An app-based appointment system suggests the illusion of order and impartiality, but in reality CBP One puts people in danger and means more profit and power for criminal cartels,” Sawyer said. “The United States and Mexico can, and should, do better.”

The report recommends DHS increase the number of border personnel to assist asylum-seekers and process all new arrivals. Human Rights Watch suggests keeping the app for those who wish to schedule appointments with it, but not limit that as the only way for everyone seeking asylum at the border.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@Borderreport.com.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers returned Juvenal Arroyo Hernandez, 48, on April 25, the agency said.

“Noncitizens who have committed crimes in their home countries will find no refuge in the U.S.," ERO San Antonio Field Office Director Corey Price said.

Officials say Arroyo illegally entered the United States near Del Rio, Texas, in May 1988, and U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended him and he voluntarily returned to Mexico.

Officials said he re-entered near Eagle Pass, Texas, in October 2011, and he again was arrested and a federal court convicted him of entry without permission and sentenced him to 10 days confinement before he was sent back to Mexico.

He was encountered in Austin on April 17 and detained and sent to the Hutto Detention Center to await removal. But that same day, foreign service national investigators in Mexico notified ERO in San Antonio that Arroyo was wanted in Mexico for homicide, the agency says.

He was removed and turned over to Mexican authorities on Thursday "without incident," according to the agency.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

Almost all the migrants were from Central America and were being guarded by armed caretakers at a home on the corner of Del Real and Marquina streets, Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya told reporters. Four unidentified suspects were taken into custody and a 9mm gun seized at the scene.

A video taken by a Border Report camera crew shows migrants with backpacks coming out of the home one by one and being told to sit by a wall by police officers. The group also included some women.

Chihuahua state authorities say organized criminal groups traditionally associated with drug trafficking now also are cashing in on migrant smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Authorities did not identify the criminal group that had been holding the migrants.

In March, authorities in Texas arrested a 29-year-old Mexican man after he tried to enter the U.S. with two live howler monkeys in the back of his pickup. Less than a week later, a woman was caught attempting to smuggle 21 parrots and a keel-billed toucan into California.

On Thursday, May 9th, NewsNation rides with the Border Patrol live, showing you the border the way no other news network can. See it Thursday, May 9th, on a special edition of “Dan Abrams Live” at 9 p.m. Eastern (8 p.m. Central). Find out your channel at joinnn.com.

It's unclear if either person was directly tied to a cartel, but both incidents offer a glimpse into an illegal wildlife trade that is now the fourth largest funding source for criminal organizations, generating about $23 billion each year, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In November, the International Criminal Police Organization, INTERPOL, warned that the growing issue has pushed many species "to the brink of extinction."

Online marketplaces and social media have made the problem worse. Nowadays, it's significantly easier for consumers to get wild animals on the black market, many of which arrive from outside the country through U.S. ports of entry.

From 2018 to 2021, wildlife trafficking surged more than 150%, according to a Moody's Analytics report, which cited government data. The illegal trade has become a breeding ground for corruption and a major source of profit as more "structured cartels enter the space," the report said.

Wildlife trafficking from Mexico to China has helped fuel the drug trade, with cartels trading wildlife for chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl, according to the Brookings Institution.

Latin America is especially vulnerable because of its biodiversity. Ecuador, for example, has about 1,600 species of birds, and Brazil hosts between 15% to 20% of the entire world's wildlife diversity.

Some animals, like spider monkeys, can fetch upwards of $8,000 in the United States. Last summer, California border authorities confiscated three baby spider monkeys at the Calexico-Mexicali crossing. Just two months old, they were underfed and in poor condition but eventually nursed back to health by specialists at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

To combat the growing problem, DHS established a new Wildlife and Environmental Crimes Unit in 2023. That team is focused on enforcing anti-wildlife trafficking and environmental crime laws.

There's also been a push to help trafficked animals after they're confiscated. In October, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) partnered with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to launch the Wildlife Confiscations Network in Southern California. The network makes it easier for law enforcement to find housing for rescued animals.

In 2022, FWS special agents and other law enforcement partners investigated over 10,000 wildlife trafficking cases and collected over $11,000,000 in criminal penalties, the agency said.

A study published in April found that better wildlife screening tools, which are "severely lacking," could help authorities crack down further.

"Currently, wildlife seizures predominately rely on prior intelligence as opposed to active surveillance methods, thus seizures reported likely represent a very small percentage of all smuggling attempts," researchers at the University of Adelaide found.

Specifically, wildlife detection dogs are becoming more common because they can sniff out distinct scents like reptiles and birds. In fact, it was a K-9 unit that detected the nearly two dozen exotic birds heading into California in March.

For now, the U.S. remains one of the world's largest markets for trafficked wildlife, in part because the "size and scope" of the country's financial system makes it "ideal for bad actors to pass their illicit funds through," Moody's said in its report.

In that sense, addressing the illegal animal trade could be crucial in the battle against Mexican drug cartels in addition to protecting endangered species and threats to human health stemming from the transmission of disease.

Watch the full interview

“It’s not my fault. I didn’t do it," Kelly told NewsNation in an interview days after Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial. "Somebody else is responsible for that.”

Kelly recounted the events of Jan. 30, 2023, saying he saw men coming toward his house and one raising a weapon.

“He turned towards me … pointed the AK at me. And that's when — everybody says was the dumbest thing I ever did — they said you should have shot him because he was getting ready to shoot you,” he said.

“I don’t know why, but I said, ‘Nah, I’m not gonna do it’. I shot over the trees, over the top of his head, and thank God him and the other guys ran.”

Later, when trying to get his dogs away from what he thought was a skunk, he found a body, and called the sheriff's department.

“They accused me of shooting him. I said, ‘No, I didn’t shoot him.’ And they said, ‘Well, we think you did, and we’re arresting you for first-degree murder.'”

That led to 22 days in jail, what Kelly calls the worst days of his life: “If hell is anything like that, I’m gonna do everything I can not to go.”

"I don't feel that I was treated fairly in the investigation. I think I was arrested without cause, without probable cause."

Kelly, 75, was charged in connection to the death of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, an unarmed migrant. Second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges against Kelly killing have now been dropped after prosecutors chose not to retry his case.

Cuen-Buitimea, 48, had lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico, and had been with a group of men Kelly encountered on his property last year.

Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle toward the group that was about 100 yards away. While the rancher admitted to firing warning shots in the air, Kelly maintains he didn't shoot directly at anyone. The other migrants on Kelly’s ranch in 2023 weren’t injured and escaped back to Mexico.

Kelly discovered the body after detectives scoured the area but no bullet was ever recovered.

At the time, Kelly said, he feared for his safety and that of his wife and property. He still has the same concerns because of the situation at the U.S./Mexico border. A neighbor living on Kelly’s road told NewsNation that Border Patrol responded to the Kelly ranch at least 30 times in March.

"I've lived in a place like this all my life," Kelly said. "I'm not afraid to exist here. But I know that it's a definite risk."

Making a new start has been made harder because of all his legal challenges. Kelly said, "We have no funds."

"Our life savings, it's gone," he said.

Unbeknownst to Kelly, his wife set up a fundraiser through the Christian website GiveSendGo to help pay for attorneys as well as other legal fees. People donated anywhere from $2 to $10,000, Kelly said.

That's enough to keep them afloat, Kelly said, but he added there's still a long battle ahead of him.

"That cloud's still over my head," he said. "It's a long road, and we're not out of danger yet, but we're not giving up. I'm not going to let them beat me down."

NewsNation digital producer Damita Menezes, field producer Travis Harrison and The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Criminals attacked a Mexican army installation last week in the town of Miguel Aleman and armed clashes between rival gangs also were reported there on Monday. A mayor seeking reelection in Ciudad Mante was murdered, and in Nuevo Leon police investigated several mass kidnappings and reported the rescue of 13 individuals.

This is taking place in a region formerly dominated by the Zetas drug cartel and now fiercely contested by splinter groups and the rival Gulf cartel, an international security expert says.

“The Zetas are not a congruent entity anymore, but some offshoots are quite active. We are seeing major factions operating in cities along the border,” said Michael Ballard, vice president of intelligence for Virginia-based Global Guardian. “It’s a small slice of what they used to control, but those two states are still among the primary routes for heroin and cocaine to make its way to the border and the U.S. There’s a reason why border cities and states remain hotly contested and you have a lot of violence.”

The Zetas were known for their extreme violence which included videotaped beheadings and the 2010 San Fernando massacre that claimed the lives of 72 migrants. The Zetas branched out into kidnapping, extortion of merchants, fuel theft and migrant trafficking before their leaders were killed or jailed, Ballard said.

The strongest faction among the remnants of the Zetas is the Northeast cartel, or CDN, with its Tropa del Infierno (Hell’s Troop) group of enforcers. Next in importance is Zetas Old School. CDN has engaged in large-scale firefights with the army in 2022 and Tamaulipas state government in 2021.

“It’s not the same level of control with these groups as under the Zetas; you don’t have the same level of extreme violence. But make no mistake, they are still dangerous, and we broadly recommend against travel to Veracruz or Tamaulipas unless it's absolutely necessary,” Ballard said.

The call came from a GOP delegation of state lawmakers and sheriffs accompanying the U.S. Border Patrol on a tour of a stretch between Doña Ana and Luna counties rife with organized smuggling activity and encounters with migrants not trying to apply for asylum but seeking to evade capture.

“The other three border states with Mexico have all taken the National Guard and, in one way or the other, (place them) along the border. We are hearing from Border Patrol that has forced the illegal immigration to look for the weak spots, and there are weak spots all across the New Mexico border,” said state Rep. Rod Montoya, R-San Juan.

The Santa Teresa Border Patrol station is one of the busiest in the country when it comes to migrant smuggling attempts, according to the agency.

Texas Department of Public Safety car chases that often result in arrests and sometimes in crashes often originate with smugglers picking up migrants near the New Mexico communities of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park. Most of the 149 migrants who died in the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol perished in the desert of New Mexico, as smugglers left them behind with little food or water, the agency reported.

Lawmakers said border agents told them how smugglers are using injured or sick migrants as decoys to draw the Border Patrol away from larger groups of migrants seeking to evade authorities. Small, unaccompanied minors separated from the group are another favored decoy tactic by smugglers.

The lawmakers said they’ll propose harsher state penalties for fentanyl traffickers in the upcoming special session of the legislature.

“The other states have found a way to affect the transportation of fentanyl. There’s a road map that the other states, including Gavin Newsom’s California, whom most of the time our governor is quick to jump onto any legislation that California pushes through. This is one area we agree our governor needs to follow the lead of Gavin Newsom and put the National Guard along the border,” Montoya said.

Last September, Gov. Newsom announced a $1 billion investment to combat the fentanyl crisis in the state that included deploying 60 California National Guard troops to four U.S. ports of entry.

Border Report reached out to Gov. Lujan Grisham’s office for comment and is awaiting a response. Earlier, Lujan Grisham said she shared Republican lawmakers' concerns about border security but urged them to persuade their federal counterparts in the U.S. House to approve a bipartisan border plan.

State Rep. Jenifer Jones, R-Deming, whose district includes more than 100 miles of U.S. border, said transnational criminal organizations are targeting Southern New Mexico communities. Their law enforcement officers need all the help they can get against smugglers using backroads to reach Interstates 10 and 25, she said.

“Transnational gangs are watching every square foot of the border. They are professional criminals who will exploit any border weakness in order to gain power and money, and New Mexico is the weakest link and is getting weaker without action from our governor,” Jones said. “We have become the path of least resistance. The rugged desert in my district is a freeway for crime, putting my constituents’ lives and the livelihoods of all New Mexicans at risk.”

Jones said she's aware of the family and economic ties between residents on both sides of the border. "We depend on each other. We don't want a closed border, we want a secure and safe border and we want laws that hold lawbreakers accountable," she said.

Members of the GOP delegation acknowledged it's primarily up to the federal government to pass and enforce immigration laws, but state lawmakers have an obligation to address public safety crises that affect their communities.

Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel says if you only account for apprehensions along the border with Mexico, the San Diego Sector has been the busiest for a long time.

"It's not something that’s new," she said. "We've been the epicenter for quite a while; San Diego per square mile has usually been the busiest sector on the entire Southwest border historically.”

She said the only thing that's new, are the figures for the month of April. "We are the busiest in sheer numbers," she said.

McGurk-Daniel says the April apprehensions have contributed to what will likely be a record year for the San Diego Sector, which is one of nine sectors along the southern border.

"Last fiscal year we had 230,000, this year we've already had 200,000," she said.

The 2024 fiscal year will end Sept. 30.

McGurk Daniel said the increased number of migrants in the San Diego area has forced some of her agents into roles that are not part of their job description, such as driving buses to transport asylum seekers.

"Unfortunately, this does take us away from Border Patrol missions which includes addressing people who are trying to get away from us, and stopping narcotic activity in San Diego."

McGurk-Daniel also worries that more migrants are putting their lives in the hands of smugglers to get them across the border.

"One of the challenges for us is dealing with people who are not trying to get away, but turning themselves in. Unfortunately, when they do it between the ports of entry and not at a port of entry, they are putting their lives in the hands of smugglers, who are nefarious. It’s dangerous.”

McGurk-Daniel said she is proud of her agents and the work they do on a daily basis, not only working with migrants, but in their roles to fight drug smuggling into our country.

Through the first two months of the year, Mexican officials encountered or apprehended 240,000 migrants, up 20% from previous monthly highs, according to Mexican government data cited by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

On Thursday, May 9th, NewsNation rides with the Border Patrol live, showing you the border the way no other news network can. See it Thursday, May 9th, on a special edition of "Dan Abrams Live" at 9 p.m. Eastern (8 p.m. Central). Find out your channel at joinnn.com.

Mexico has also issued significantly fewer humanitarian visa cards in recent months. The number of those cards — which allow migrants to travel across the country — has plummeted 98% from an average of 13,294 per month for most of 2023 to just 213 per month between November and February, WOLA noted.

The recent crackdown has been apparent in the northern border state of Chihuahua where Mexican patrols have become more visible along the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez. That effort comes as hundreds of migrants continue to ride trains to the El Paso-Juarez border to seek asylum in the U.S.

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discussed new steps to clamp down on illegal migration — a plan that reportedly includes tougher enforcement on railways, buses and in airports.

Along the southern border, illegal crossings are down more than 40% from December to March, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“The teamwork is paying off,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday. However, he warned that border encounters tend to increase in warm weather months and said the administration will continue to work with Mexican authorities.

Other reports suggest Mexico's stepped-up enforcement is just delaying, rather than blocking, illegal migration to the U.S.

"Most detained migrants are swiftly freed because of legal protections, and a lack of resources for the sheer numbers crossing mean many eventually make it across the border," the Financial Times noted last week.

Of the nearly 120,000 migrant detentions in Mexico in January just 3,000 were moved to another country, the media outlet reported. Rather than get expelled, most were given an administrative order and told to leave before eventually being released into the country.

Of particular concern are the migrants crossing the Darién Gap in Panama, a treacherous passage that's grown in popularity and saw more than half a million people pass through last year.

In other words, even if Mexico cracks down, broader enforcement in other Latin American countries may be necessary to stem migration flows from further south.

"There must be a huge number of people from Venezuela bottled up in Mexico right now," Adam Isacson, an analyst of border and migration patterns at WOLA recently told NPR.

Panama’s government said it removed 864 migrants from the country between April 2023 and April 2024, Isacson wrote in a recent report. Meanwhile, Guatemalan authorities have expelled nearly 7,735 migrants into Honduras and an additional 177 into El Salvador so far this year, the report noted.

The delays started on Saturday when the Texas Department of Public Safety resumed enhanced safety inspections of all trucks coming across from Mexico at the Ysleta port of entry and the Bridge of the Americas.

Thor Salayandia, an official with the Mexican Chamber of Industry, said hundreds of trucks with parts and goods headed to the United States remain stranded in line at border crossings or had to turn back with their loads to the factories.

“We don’t know when this is going to end. There are no indications of what comes next,” Salayandia said at a news conference Monday in Juarez. The losses come from the overtime that plants must pay drivers and warehouse employees and could soon be reflected in unfulfilled delivery contracts.

The drivers are also bearing an economic cost, in addition to being the ones forced to wait six to eight hours in the cabs of idling trucks.

“Usually, we make three trips. But today, I won’t be able to come back with another load,” said Martin Campos, a Juarez trucker checking the back of a trailer next to the Ysleta Port of Entry before returning to the lot of an assembly plant early Monday afternoon.

Campos said he waited seven hours to cross into the United States with a load of washing machines and refrigerators on Saturday. By Monday, he wised up and made a 30-mile detour to Tornillo, Texas, where it only took him 25 minutes to get across. He said many other Juarez drivers have begun to take that route instead of the usual straight line from industrial parks in Zaragoza to the nearby Zaragoza International Bridge.

“If we go back (to the factory in Juarez) too late, they will just send us home. That hits all of us in the pocketbook,” Campos lamented. “There is no commercial movement (at Ysleta). [...] We have plenty of merchandise to bring across, but we cannot bring it. It affects both countries because the goods don’t get to you guys, either.”

Campos said it’s time the U.S. and Mexico deal with the mass migration that reportedly prompted Texas to restart the enhanced inspection that hurt the border industry to the tune of at least $4 billion the last time they were implemented, in April 2023.

Salayandia and other Juarez industry officials also said the two countries must continue looking for solutions to the years-long migrant crisis that has now spilled into the heart of the region’s commerce.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis activated additional resources for the potential influx of migrant landings, including the U.S. Coast Guard, which performs daily surveillance missions by air, land and sea.

"We've all been following the news. We get frequent updates from our guys deployed down there. so we do anticipate some sort of an uptick," said Coast Guard pilot Brian Trerice.

NewsNation’s Xavier Walton took an exclusive ride-along with the Coast Guard in Florida to see what protecting the nation's borders looks like from a bird's-eye view.

Flying over migrant landing hot spots

Hovering around 4,000 feet in the air, crews search hot spots that migrants typically visit before reaching American soil.

"You're just cruising along and there's two dudes standing on the rocks," Trerice said, described the sighting of migrants during one flight. "We were able to drop them the can we have in the back with some water, some food and a radio."

After migrants are spotted, the crew radios for a Coast Guard cutter — a type of boat — to intercept.

Surge in maritime smuggling

Hundreds of migrants have been caught at sea and repatriated to their home countries this fiscal year. The Coast Guard said it's mostly Cuban and Haitian migrants.

During the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Border Patrol agents responded to more than 5,700 migrants who landed in the Miami Sector, including the Florida Keys, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

However, more than 11,900 migrants were stopped by the Coast Guard at sea before making landfall, according to Coast Guard figures obtained by the Miami Herald.

The Coast Guard believes posturing by Border Patrol and other federal agencies is discouraging migrants from making the dangerous journey to America. Additionally, the agency noted that migrants aren't worried about getting caught or hiding per se, but are more concerned about the weather as the journey to the U.S. can be extremely treacherous.

"They're definitely checking the weather," Trerice said. "They're definitely checking forecasts, and they're going to try and time their departure for the calmer seas."

Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel last Thursday took to X to share the numbers, which agency officials say make it the busiest sector along the southern border this month.

A local official has also labeled the region as the "epicenter for illegal immigration."

In a statement late last week, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said that the number of apprehensions in the San Diego Sector has "propelled San Diego to the unfortunate position of leading all nine southern border sectors in April, a trend unseen since the 1990s.”

Border Patrol has confirmed that so far in April, San Diego has had more apprehensions than any other sector.

Volunteers who feed and hand out water to migrants in an area by Border Patrol agents call "Whiskey 8," say they too have seen an increase in migrant crossings in recent weeks.

They told Border Report on Monday that they saw upwards of 300 migrants during mornings last week.

On Monday morning, they reported helping two groups of asylum-seekers totaling 60 before agents took the migrants to Border Patrol stations for processing.

The official numbers for the month of April won't be made public until mid-May.

The most up-to-date figures show that in the San Diego Sector, since October 1 when the current fiscal year began, 185,469 migrants had been apprehended through the end of March, compared to 342,002 in the Tucson Sector.

Last month, San Diego Sector had 33,784 apprehensions, Tucson 41,941 and El Paso had 30,420.

Dr. Gary Schwarz is an oral surgeon from the Rio Grande Valley who owns La Perla, a deer hunting and bass fishing ranch in far western Zapata County along Highway 83. He also owns a nearby strip of land that goes to the Rio Grande, from where he gets water for his ranch, and that is where the state wants to build its border wall.

His neighbor to the north has already allowed the state to construct the 30-foot-tall metal bollards through his riverfront property, and so has another rancher north of that one.

The Texas Facilities Commission hired a company that began construction in March, and the land has been shorn of trees and brush and sloped, and the bollards have been going up quickly.

It's the first segment of border wall ever to be built in Zapata County -- a rural, ranching county with a population of just 14,000.

About a week ago, Schwarz, 71, says he received a contract offer from the state for his riverfront land, which he is mulling over.

"This is an engineering marvel. It's beautiful," Schwarz said Sunday as he took Border Report on a tour of the border wall construction site.

"It's opened up a visual of this drainage rio. These banks were just vertical and they've sloped them. It's beautiful, in my opinion, and it makes me feel more secure," said Schwarz, who was named 2020 Texas Dentist of the Year by the Texas Academy of General Dentistry.

He says his ranch house was broken into about a year ago, and his adult son was attacked by individuals in a group of migrants. He said the incident was "quite frightening," and he believes more border security is needed.

The property, which he bought in 2005, also has had a lot of fence damage from migrants crossing, he said.

"Our problems have been a lot of problems at night where they're crossing our fences and they're either cutting our fences and we lose our valuable animals or crawl over them and just literally so many people crawling over and they knock your fences down. That's a big problem," he said.

Schwarz says he's grateful for Gov. Greg Abbott and his border security initiative Operation Lone Star, which has sent National Guard troops and DPS troopers to the border since 2021. He said he's noticed a decrease in illegal immigration in Zapata.

"It really makes me proud of the State of Texas Gov. Abbott and the work they're doing here," he said.

But he has some concerns about the wall through his border property. Namely, he wants the state to guarantee that he will continue to have access to his water pump and water rights in the Rio Grande. And he wants to continue to be able to take birding tours south of the wall to the river.

"As an American, as a Texan, as a citizen of our country, it's essential. As a businessman, I've got things that it could really mess up," Schwarz said.

His bass ponds, as does his ranch about 3 miles from the border, rely on water pumped from the Rio Grande.

"It's my only source of water, my river pump for 15,000 acres of land -- 3,000 of my own, eight other owners owning the rest. And we need that water," he said.

Right now he has a snaking line that is moved frequently to find the best source of water

At the river, a steep dirt road leads to a pristine Rio Grande wonderland with a unique giant rock formation jutting in the middle. It makes the distance across to Mexico seem minimal, but Schwarz says the water is very deep.

He says this is where Mexican Gen. Francisco "Pancho" Villa used to cross his army during the Mexican Revolution.

Chachalaca birds -- which resemble small, brown chickens -- can be heard crowing.

Schwarz says this is a popular spot for birders where rare species, not found elsewhere in the United States, can sometimes be seen, and adds that he's not risking the opportunity to show this spot to others because of a wall.

"I do Audubon tours on the river. And that's a big part of my business model. And so if we can solve those issues, I want to have this wall," Schwarz said. "And if I don't agree to it, there's going to be a hole in the wall."

The vista from atop rocks in the middle of the Rio Grande shows the new segment of state-built border wall in Zapata, Texas. Dr. Gary Schwarz says Mexican Gen. Francisco 'Pancho' Villa crossed his armies at this point, which now belongs to Schwarz. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report Photos)

Schwarz reiterated that he not only wants "fair compensation" for the State of Texas to put a wall on his property but also to make sure he doesn't lose access to his water.

"I think they should pay me a reasonable premium as a business would; that's No. 1," he said. "No. 2: I got to be able to protect that pump."

Like his neighbor did, Schwarz plans to build a permanent irrigation system with a trench that brings the water to the pump.

"But if they won't let me do it, that's a game killer."

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

The trucks are waiting 480 minutes (eight hours) or more to cross the border at the Ysleta port of entry, when the usual wait time is about an hour, according to the official U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.

The safety inspections, which Texas has used in the past to pressure U.S. and Mexican officials to prevent mass illegal migration through the state, come days after large numbers of prospective asylum-seekers began arriving in large numbers in trains to Juarez. Some of those migrants have been coming across the Rio Grande into El Paso, walking several miles along the levee to skirt the Texas Army National Guard and razor wire in place there.

“You can imagine what it is to be a supply chain manager when something like this happens. It just creates major havoc in the entire supply chain,” said Jerry Pacheco, president and CEO of the Border Industrial Association. “The worst thing is it’s uncertain when it’s going to end. You can’t even plan for this. It completely disrupts our cross-border trade.”

The inspections began on Saturday morning, according to a trade notice sent by CBP to industry stakeholders. That immediately resulted in a more than 10% reduction in total truck traffic. CBP as of Monday has expanded inspection hours at commercial crossings in the region. The Santa Teresa, New Mexico, port of entry west of El Paso will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Friday. The Marcelino Serna port in Tornillo, Texas, to the east will open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In Juarez, industry reps and trucking company representatives called for an immediate end to Texas “unnecessary” truck inspections, which they deemed political – more than a public safety matter.

Industry leaders north of the border echoed that sentiment.

“Whenever Texas DPS has done this, they never found anything substantial on trucks coming across the border,” Pacheco said. “It is a political thing; it’s Austin picking on El Paso.”

Border Report reached out to Texas DPS for comment and is awaiting a response. The state has conducted enhanced inspections at the El Paso-Juarez border in 2021 and 2023 coinciding with migrant surges.

The Harris Poll commissioned by Axios Vibes shows that an overwhelming percentage of Republicans, 68%, believe that mass deportations should be on the table. 42% of Democrats and 46% of independents agree.

Broken down by race, 56% of Whites would support mass deportations, while 45% of Latinos and 40% of Blacks agree.

And by age, 60% of Baby Boomers, 54% of Gen X, 48% of Millennials and 35% of Gen Z answered “yes” to the mass deportations question.

"I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations," said Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll told Axios.

"I think they're just sending a message to politicians: 'Get this under control.' "

Former President Donald Trump has vowed to launch “the largest domestic deportation in American history” if he’s returned to the presidency.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been dealing with a record influx of migrants at the southern border and endorsed a bipartisan border security bill. That measure failed after Trump told Republicans to oppose it.

Answering a related question, 30% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans said they would favor repealing the 14^th Amendment that guarantees birthright citizenship.

The Harris Poll surveyed 6,251 Americans in March and April.

Jorge Oceguera-Rocha, 25, resigned his position as a correctional deputy after his arrest in September 2023.

According to officials, he was driving his private vehicle in Calimesa when he was pulled over. Inside his car, investigators say they found a gun and 104 pounds of fentanyl pills.

Investigators did not detail how they learned of Oceguera-Rocha's alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but now it's apparent that he was the "corrupt Riverside County Correctional Deputy" mentioned in a Wednesday press release touting Operation Hotline Bling, the Press-Enterprise explained.

That operation, which led to 15 arrests and the seizure of $16 million in narcotics, was aimed at the Sinaloa cartel's activity in the Inland Empire.

That cartel was once helmed by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, perhaps one of the most prominent and powerful drug lords since the height of Pablo Escobar's empire in the 1980s and early '90s.

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd are investigating a New York Post report from September that claimed newly arrived immigrants in New York City were paying current delivery workers to use their accounts to earn a living.

Since Oct. 1, there have been 1.7 million migrant encounters at the Mexican and Canadian borders. At the end of last month, federal data showed an estimated 1,000 migrants arriving in New York City every day. Federal law currently requires migrants to wait 180 days after their arrival for a work permit.

Food delivery has provided a path to independence for immigrants who have recently come to the U.S., but it is difficult to tell who is eligible to work or not, with stories circulating of some immigrants without work authorization using the accounts of others who are eligible for employment in the States.

Senators investigate food delivery apps

Braun and Budd sent letters to each of the food delivery platforms Thursday, saying they believe the apps are "being hijacked by illegal immigrants intent on gaming the system.” 

“The danger to Americans — and specifically consumers using your services — is real,” they wrote. “These illegal immigrants are delivering food directly to consumers’ doors without ever having undergone a background check and often without even using their real names.”

NewsNation reached out to all three senators for comment. Braun responded, placing the blame on the Biden administration.

“We need to close our southern border, and we also need to crack down on opportunities for illegal aliens to find work in the U.S. to remove every incentive to illegally enter our country,” Braun said.

Budd, Blackburn and Braun asked for more information from these companies on security and accountability measures, wanting to know how many account holders they’ve suspended for this alleged activity.

DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber respond

NewsNation received statements from DoorDash and Grubhub, both stating they have extensive policies to verify account holders' identities and prohibit account sharing or selling.

“If we find anyone misrepresenting their identity or granting unauthorized access to an account, they’ll be removed from the platform,” Grubhub said.

“To be clear: There is no place on the DoorDash platform for those that can’t or won’t verify their identity,” DoorDash responded. “Every Dasher is required to have their own verified account.”

The three senators want answers to their inquiry by May 6. They did praise these platforms for “improving the lives of so many Americans,” but said they’re intent on protecting the gig economy and Americans from any potential dangers of having unverified drivers showing up at their homes.

Uber also defended their hiring practices in a statement to NewsNation:

“All couriers who deliver with Uber are required to hold a valid right to work in the US, pass a criminal background check, and be over the age of 18. If a courier is found to be sharing their account or using a fraudulent account, we remove their access to our platform, no exceptions. We appreciate the Senators’ concerns and plan to respond to their letter with more information on our strict policies and processes in place to help prevent and address account sharing.”

Some U.S. officials are attributing the surge to a concerted effort by transnational criminal organizations to profit from foreign citizens fleeing economic and public safety crises in their countries.

As the trickle of migrants coming across the Rio Grande increases by the hour, U.S. Border Patrol officials in El Paso say they are prepared to handle the surge.

“We have seen multiple small groups of people arriving at different times throughout the night and day,” said Claudio Herrera-Baeza, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso. “All these migrants are being pushed by disinformation on social media. [….] They believe that once they cross this border they will put in for asylum and be free to go. The reality is these migrants are going to be processed for removal.”

Last year, the federal government began to implement the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule directing asylum-seekers to make appointments online before showing up at a U.S. port of entry. Those crossing the border between ports of entry could be removed from the country under Title 8 procedures and lose immigration benefits for several years.

The El Paso border has been relatively calm in the past two months, with migrant encounters averaging between 800 to 1,000 a day and the population at processing facilities at under 3,000 despite a mandate to screen anyone who comes across.

“We are processing every single one because we need to know who is coming in,” Herrera-Baeza said. “We have learned from previous migrant surges over the years, we have the capacity to process these migrants in an efficient and humane way.”

Many of the 1,000-plus migrants who arrived in Juarez on Wednesday spent the night in shelters. Hundreds approached the Rio Grande on Thursday afternoon, but many were dumbfounded upon seeing the razor wire and soldiers the Texas Army National Guard has placed in front of the U.S. border wall.

“The Guard is telling us to go to Gate 45. We cannot go there. It is too dangerous. There are cartels down there and we have women and children. They will kidnap us,” said Luis, a Venezuelan migrant. “We will resist here (on the river levee) until we are able to cross. Mexican immigration says they will take us to shelters but we know not all of them are good people. They have returned too many people to (Southern Mexico).”

For the past year or so, asylum-seekers have been directed either by peers who have already crossed or by the smugglers who facilitated their arrival to Juarez to go to Gate 36 of the border wall in El Paso. But because of the heavy presence of the Texas Guard and the intimidating barbwire, many are now trying to turn surrender at Gate 38 to the east.

Herrera-Baeza said the Border Patrol is redeploying its agents to match migrant flows.

On the Juarez side, migrants could be seen gathering along the banks of the Rio Grande for hours at a time, waiting for the right time to cross. Some of the migrants told a Border Report camera crew that peers were suggesting on social media to wait to gather in large numbers so U.S. authorities could not turn them away.

ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.

The truck came up to an immigration checkpoint on the Chihuahua-Juarez Highway south of Juarez and agents flagged it for inspection. The trailer held 108 citizens of Guatemala, 22 from Ecuador and a Salvadoran with no travel documents or humanitarian visas, agents with the National Migration Institute told Border Report.

The agents said they were concerned about the health of the migrants, who were crammed into the box with no air-conditioning.

Fourteen unaccompanied minors and nine families were among the group. The migrants were taken to an immigration station in Janos, Chihuahua, for medical checkups and to determine their legal status in Mexico, the agents said.

The unaccompanied minors and the families later were taken to a shelter run by DIF, the government's child and family services agency.

The unidentified driver was arrested and turned over to the Mexican federal police for further questioning.

ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.

In the first half of this fiscal year, 136,623 immigrants already living in the U.S. were deported or ordered deportation, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

It was also discovered only 20% of immigrants filing for an asylum application were ordered to be removed.

Deportations by location

The largest removal has been in New York City, where just under 11,000 immigrants sheltering in the city were deported. It comes as the Big Apple has struggled to handle an influx of migrants who have arrived in the city since the spring of 2022, with more than 187,000 people seeking asylum.

Many of those migrants had been bussed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in attempts to provoke policy change at the southern border. Abbott bused more than 100,000 migrants to northern sanctuary cities.

The next largest court-ordered removals were 8,000 immigrants in Harris County, Texas, and nearly 6,000 immigrants in Los Angeles County, California.

Chicago ranked 10th on the list with just over 1,500 immigrants departed despite it being another Democratic hub that ranked high in receiving new asylum seekers, the report said.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Victor Trevino and Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez pledged to do more to help, the Laredo Morning Times reports.

There have been several reported backups and hours-long waits when Mexican customs officials closed the World Trade Bridge due to software problems.

Although U.S. equipment has not faltered, the delays and closures have caused massive backups in roads leading near and to the World Trade Bridge, which is the No. 1 inland port for commercial vehicles in the United States.

Rodriguez has pledged to dispatch officers to prevent traffic backups "to keep those access roads open," the newspaper reports.

Over 227,000 commercial vehicles crossed the World Trade Bridge in March, according to the city.

Laredo City Councilmember Vanessa Perez reportedly expressed frustration with the situation, saying: “We can handle an hour or two of the system going down, but once the system goes down for three, four or five hours overnight, that's where it becomes an issue because we don’t have the space. ... We can’t handle all these trucks.” 

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

The National Immigration Forum, in coordination with several other groups, designed the "Coalition Border Security and Management Framework," plan to draw in Republicans and Democrats, officials say.

Collaborating organizations say their end goal is to efficiently and effectively secure the U.S. border while improving the asylum and immigration process for those who cross into the United States.

The plan's four main proposals include:

• Modernizing the U.S. asylum process by creating a specialized corps of asylum officers with the authority to adjudicate most claims at the border within 45-60 days.
• Provide the personnel and resources to adequately secure U.S. borders.
• Programs and investments in technology to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal substances into the United States.
• Stopping human smuggling and trafficking by updating federal laws and processes to better respond to incidents, including those involving children.

The 16-page plan "proposes solutions to our border challenges and creates something secure, efficient and humane," Jennie Murray, CEO of the nonprofit National Immigration Forum, told reporters on Wednesday. "This framework is pragmatic and we believe will receive support across party lines."

If applied by lawmakers, Murray says "this framework would reduce unauthorized crossings and make the asylum process more efficient. It would also recognize the need for states and cities that have been struggling to keep up with the challenges of welcoming new arrivals."

"By prioritizing a secure, efficient, and humane border, this framework is intended to create space to address longstanding shortcomings in other parts of the immigration system," the report says.

The seven collaborating organizations that took part in this year-long report are all members of what they call center-right advocacy groups affiliated with the Alliance for a New Immigration Consensus.

Participating groups include: Niskanen Center, Hispanic Leadership Fund, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, State Business Executives, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, and Border Perspective.

"We’re giving Congress tools to tackle policy reforms that secure our border and ensure our asylum system is efficient, effective, and fair,” said Kristie De Peña, senior vice president of policy at the Niskanen Center think tank.

De Peña says decades of a "patchwork approach to processing arrivals" have resulted in a vastly backlogged immigration system.

There were over 3.5 million backlogged U.S. immigration cases as of the end of March, reports Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse of Syracuse University.

De Peña says the framework offers solutions to effectively reduce the immigration timeline from initial encounters to final decisions.

"We need adjudication standards that differentiate between economic migrants and migrants seeking safety," she said.

"It's really no surprise that the movement of about 8 million people is really stressing our systems, and Americans alike," De Peña said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports there could be upwards of 100 million people displaced globally.

"We no longer feel this is a passing trend," Murray said.

According to the report, safeguarding the most vulnerable populations, like children, needs to be a priority.

Under this proposal, all unaccompanied children would receive a case manager within 72 hours of entering U.S. custody, and there would be documented reporting of every interaction the child has with U.S. officials.

"That's going to ensure that they're getting the kinds of protections that they need throughout the process," De Peña said.

Family units with children would be held in CBP facilities "for no more than 72 hours and then released upon placement in a qualifying Alternatives to Detention program," the report says.

The report also asks for more funding for border communities and states burdened with new arrivals.

Improving the current scheduling of asylum interviews with DHS officials is also urged. Interviews currently are made via the CBP One app at CBP ports in:

• Arizona: Nogales
• Texas: Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, Laredo, and El Paso
• California: Calexico and San Ysidro

"Of course, none of these pieces alone is a silver bullet, but they make up the foundations of the kind of reform system that we think can reduce pressure on the border and increase order and security," De Peña said.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@Borderreport.com.

Images obtained by a Border Report camera crew show the arrival in Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday afternoon of a lengthy cargo train with people packed tightly atop each boxcar.

The train was coming from Chihuahua City, where authorities recently disbanded hundreds of migrants staying in tents behind a convenience store next to train tracks. The migrants set up the camp several weeks ago because Mexican immigration officials got them off Juarez-bound trains.

One migrant told local news media he and some of his peers armed themselves with rocks to prevent agents of Mexico’s National Migration Institute from getting them off the trains, as the agents had been doing for the past several weeks.

Some migrants told Border Report they were headed straight to the Rio Grande to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol and present asylum claims. Others said they came with their families in tow so they would look for a shelter to get food and stay the night before attempting a crossing on Thursday.

"I am traveling by myself and they're waiting for me in Florida," said Johan, an 18-year-old Venezuelan migrant. "I left (Venezuela) on February 5 and I stayed in Mexico some time and the (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) appointment never came. [...] I will go to the river and see what happens."

Richard, another asylum-seeker from Venezuela, said he was looking forward to a respite in a Juarez shelter before attempting to cross the border.

"I feel good, I feel strong and I feel blessed by God to be so close" to the United States, he said.

A multitude of people could be seen coming out of the Juarez rail yard and walking along the streets. Few appeared to be aware or care that the state of Texas has set up razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande and keeping hundreds of armed Texas Army National Guard troops there to discourage illegal crossings.

The Texas Department of Public Safety on at least three occasions has arrested large groups of migrants and charged them with misdemeanor state riot charges and some with felony criminal mischief charges for cutting the razor wire.

In El Paso, a law enforcement official said reports of large groups of migrants arriving in trains to Juarez began surfacing on Tuesday.

The U.S. Border Patrol earlier reminded asylum-seekers to make appointments through the CBP One app and wait to be called to a port of entry. They reminded migrants that crossing between ports of entry is unlawful and could disqualify them from future immigration benefits.

CBP operates several processing facilities for migrants, including a permanent structure that can hold more than 1,000 at a time near Hondo Pass Drive in Northeast El Paso, and a massive soft-sided or tent facility that can hold twice that many. That's in addition to smaller facilities at the Paso del Norte Bridge and Border Patrol stations.

As of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, only few migrants could be seen at the border wall trying to turn themselves in.

On Wednesday, the City of El Paso's online migrant dashboard report showed 3,186 already in CBP custody in the El Paso Sector that includes Hudspeth and El Paso counties in Texas, and the entire state of New Mexico.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer watching the southbound pedestrian lanes of the San Luis, Arizona, port of entry observed a man walking towards Mexico who suddenly stopped and “appeared to be adjusting his pants,” according to documents filed Monday in federal court.

As the man approached the CBP officer, he patted the front of his pants and pulled his shirt as far as it would go. Records show the officer told him to stop and asked if he had anything to declare before leaving the United States; the individual later identified as Bryant Mitchell Pilgrim responded, “I don’t have anything illegal on me.”

Records show Pilgrim then turned around and began walking away from the border; the CBP officer called for backup and told the man to stop and place his hands against a chain-link fence.

Border officers took Pilgrim into custody and searched him at the port of entry. The April 19 search yielded more than 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition in his clothing and a plastic tortilla bag, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

Homeland Security Investigation agents later attempted to question Pilgrim and search his cellphone, but they noticed the unit had been locked and “remote wiped,” erasing all data.

A few hours later on April 19, CBP officers documented the entry from Mexico of a man identified as Pilgrim’s brother. They told him of his brother’s arrest and asked if he knew about the ammo, records show.

The brother denied any knowledge or involvement and was allowed to return to re-enter the U.S. Pilgrim himself declined to talk to investigators. He is being held on charges of smuggling goods from the United States, a federal offense punishable with up to 10 years in prison.

It’s been doing it with money given by donors and other benefactors including the federal government. The County of San Diego also funded a separate Migrant Welcome Center that another local nonprofit operated for four months starting in November 2023  

But when county funding ran out in late February, JFS says it did not stop aiding asylum-seekers.

"Organizations like Jewish Family Service in San Diego, Catholic Charities, Immigrant defenders, Al Otro Lado, Haitian Bridge Alliance, the list goes on for organizations that continue to step forward in the absences of funding," said Kate Clark, Senior Director of Immigration Services with JFS.

Others, like South Bay Community Services, SBCS, were forced to close that migrant welcome center when the county's financial support ended.

This prompted the Border Patrol to start busing and dropping off migrants at public places after processing them, a practice that continues to this day.

Clark tells Border Report that JFS and other non-government organizations are hopeful San Diego County will soon start releasing millions of dollars recently allocated by the federal government.

San Diego County is in line to receive almost $20 million specifically earmarked for migrant services in the region.

"It is critically important for the county of San Diego, in particular, to come alongside organizations that have been closest to this work doing both sheltering and supporting individuals that have been released to streets of San Diego over the last year," said Clark.

Last week, the County of San Diego said it was still "discussing the possibilities" and had not decided how and who would get the money.

"Every day that there is no coordination or communication, it’s a day our region is potentially going to be detrimental," said Clark. "We really urge the county of San Diego and others to come forward and have a seat at the table alongside us.”

On Tuesday, the county said the money will have to be distributed differently per the federal government.

In the past, it was "reimbursement based," but now it has to wait until it physically has the money before it can disperse it, and it will require "full board approval."

Clark and JFS would like to see the money sooner rather than later.

"This is an opportunity for the county of San Diego to be a good steward of the dollars and help coordinate a response that is really in line with the infrastructure that we’ve created in our community."

But Clark and JFS will have to wait because the distribution of the money "is not imminent," according to the County of San Diego.

Shift in illegal border crossing hot spots

Since 2019, Texas has recorded more migrant encounters monthly compared to other border sectors, The Texas Tribune reported. This is partly because Texas has the largest border with Mexico.

However, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows that during the first three months of this calendar year, other states recorded more migrant encounters than Texas.

Data highlights the Tucson and San Diego sectors as leading in encounters, while there has been a significant decrease in the Del Rio Sector among Texas' five border sectors.

In December, there were more than 71,000 encounters in the Del Rio Sector, including in the city of Eagle Pass and at a Rio Grande buoy barrier. The state is also building a base camp in Eagle Pass for thousands of Texas National Guard troops.

Why have Texas encounters dropped?

Texas has allocated $11 billion to Operation Lone Star since it launched in 2021, The Texas Tribune reported.

Abbott's office said the operation has led to the apprehension of more than 500,000 people illegally crossing the border and the busing of more than 100,000 migrants north to cities including New York and Chicago.

However, some argue those numbers don't correlate directly to the operation's effectiveness.

"Smugglers find better ways to get people across the border without them noticing," said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrea, a policy and government professor at George Mason University. "That is a possibility, or less people are trying to make it to the United States because of many factors."

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has met with Mexican officials to discuss mitigating the surge in illegal migration.

Operation Lone Star challenges

Operation Lone Star is facing federal challenges, with the government suing Texas over allegations of overstepping federal authority via the construction of the river buoy barrier and a controversial state law that would allow state authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the border.

Both legal battles are currently progressing through the appellate courts.

Immigration advocacy groups have criticized Operation Lone Star for what they claim could be racial profiling.

Videos shared on X by Cory Gautereaux, a San Diego resident, show hundreds of migrants illegally crossing into San Diego County allegedly guided by men in black masks who cut through the border wall.

"It's hard for the agents to find these cuts, fix the cuts, and while they're doing that, they're actually cutting through the fence somewhere else and hundreds of people are coming through at one time," Gautereaux told NewsNation.

Smugglers moving West

Border Patrol's San Diego Sector is projected to see tens of thousands of more migrant apprehensions compared to last year. It's facing a historic surge of Chinese nationals crossing illegally into the area.

Sources told NewsNation that smugglers are moving their operations west as Texas strengthens border security in areas like El Paso and Eagle Pass.

Rise in Chinese migrants at southern border

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, border agents in the San Diego Sector have encountered more than 24,000 Chinese nationals so far this fiscal year, surpassing last fiscal year's tally by more than double.

Nationally, CBP data indicates nearly 42,000 Chinese nationals have entered the U.S. illegally this fiscal year that began in October, nearing the record total number of encounters in the 2023 fiscal year by about 10,000.

Gautereaux said he's found hundreds of Chinese IDs and passports littered near the border.

Sources in Mexico told NewsNation that most Chinese nationals are flying into the Tijuana airport before following the instructions of smugglers to cross the border. Border officials say some Chinese migrants are reportedly willing to pay cartels up to $35,000 for smuggling services.  

NewsNation's Aleksandra Bush contributed to this report.

States like Illinois, New York, and Colorado provide migrants and asylum seekers access programs that offer security deposits and a few months of rent, legal assistance, and caseworker support.

But what happens after those funds run out often creates a quandary for many migrants, the majority of whom won’t be qualified to work for months or years.

They're left navigating a world of utility bills and rent payments while adjusting to new surroundings in a country that is still mainly foreign.

“We’re doing our job by (having to say) that this is not going to be easy for you for a very long time and making sure they are aware of what’s in front of them,” said Peter Zigterman, the director of Immigrant Family Services Chicago for World Relief, one of a collection of humanitarian organizations that work with migrants in Illinois.

Migrants in challenging new surroundings

In Chicago, some migrant families have decided to move in together to share expenses to cut the financial burden, Zigterman said.

Other families realize they cannot sustain independent housing and are forced to return to the city’s Landing Zone, where they can re-apply to re-enter the shelter system for another 60 days like those current shelter residents who do not have a discernible path forward because of a lack of work.

Zigterman said many migrants have a hesitancy to move away from Chicago's Hispanic communities where they have been sheltered.

Vacant apartment units are made available to migrants who must make 80% below the area median income to qualify and do not need proof of employment or income, according to the Chicago Tribune.

However, the neighborhoods with the most vacant apartments are on the city's South Side, which is predominantly African American and does not offer the same Spanish-speaking support services. It leaves migrants feeling like they have less access to the support they need to navigate what's coming next, Zigterman said.

It also leaves humanitarian organizations like World Relief with a sense of feeling demoralized, Zichterman said.

“We’re connecting them to resources, we’re connecting them to rental assistance, we’re going to help them find a place, we’re going to help them get moved in, and here’s an on-ramp to something and you’re put in a position that this has a chance of working,” Zichterman told NewsNation.

“But now, what is the on-ramp onto the sustainability path? But part of the reason why we don’t know what the answer to that is, no one knows the answer to that's tough."

New York City has a similar issue, where many migrants don't want to move into surrounding suburban communities that are opposed to the rental assistance program and lack affordable housing opportunities, The New York Times reported.

Additionally, the money migrants could make under the table is more plentiful in the city, where they don't need a car to commute to work.

Where does funding come from?

Late last year, the State of Illinois updated the state’s Asylum Seekers Emergency Rental Assistance Program from providing six months of rent to three months of rent to allow more shelter residents to access to the funding.

As of March, the program has helped 5,225 families move into new homes from city-run shelters where 15,000 of the nearly 39,000 migrants who have been bused to Chicago from the U.S. southern border were once being housed at one time. However, as part of the program, thousands more were offered shelter, state officials said.

However, once the initial three months of assistance expires, qualified migrants can apply for further assistance if they apply to the Court-Based Rental Assistance Program if they are involved in eviction proceedings.

In some cases, that is enough, to keep families afloat until the progress of finalizing work authorization is complete or until they can find other means of income or financial support.

The $56 million state rental assistance is filtered through the Illinois Department of Human Services, after the ASERA program was set up with federal dollars through a partnership with the human services department and the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

As of last week, only 163 migrants had been asked to leave shelters more than a month after the city announced it would begin evictions. An estimated 2,000 migrants were scheduled to leave shelters by the end of April, but like in New York City, the number of families on the move is lagging.

Still, many officials remain concerned where migrants at a time when the city just added $70 million to its budget for migrant assistance and as temperatures begin to warm up.

'No way of telling where they have gone'

At least for now, the Illinois Department of Human Services and Chicago city officials say they have not seen a trend of migrants losing their housing due to falling behind on rent.

There have been instances when migrants have left their new home or have moved, the Human Services spokeswoman told NewsNation.

But the state does not track why or when they leave of their own accord, which allows some migrants to fall through the cracks, migrant organizations say.

“The City has no way of telling where they have gone, or connecting them with the resources they need,” Ald. Andre Vasquez said in a statement last week. “This is something that should concern all of us.”

In Chicago, families are slowly being asked to leave shelters, where the current population is around 8,600 this week.

The Chicago City Council recently passed an ordinance that will force the city to issue weekly reports beginning in mid-May to indicate how many migrants are being evicted and details where they are being sent.

Vasquez recently introduced a bill that would do away with Mayor Brandon Johnson's 60-day shelter limit, reiterating that Chicago should not be in the business of evicting migrants from temporary housing.

New York's program is narrower than Illinois', limited only to asylum seekers with children who are on track for work authorization.

It was designed to move 1,250 families into housing once their time in shelters came to an end. However, as of February, only 175 families had been moved into permanent housing, the New York Times reported.

“Man, do I wish that program was working better,” Jackie Bray, the state emergency services commissioner, told the newspaper. “That program is not at this point succeeding. And that’s a huge disappointment to us.”

The term has become a mainstay of Republican political rhetoric ahead of elections in November, but its use as a descriptor of the situation at the southern border has been widely panned as inaccurate and incendiary, even by groups including the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA.

At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) outlined the dangers of the so-called “great replacement theory,” in the process accusing CIS Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan of using the term, which Vaughan vehemently denied.

“I don’t use that term. That’s not appropriate to the border … discussion,” said Vaughan, who often appears as the face of immigration restrictionism in congressional hearings.

Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) — a hard-liner who has called for the ouster of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for not prioritizing border legislation — was presiding over the hearing on cartel impacts on Indian country and later allowed Vaughan a full rebuttal.

“The implications about me and my organization and our work are completely wrong. We reject the ideas that she was attributing to us, and I find this to be a distraction in a discussion of a really serious public policy problem, public safety problem that certainly is very serious to the representatives of Indian country here, and a distraction from that,” Vaughan said.

“We need to be able to face these issues without name-calling or maligning of motives.”

Immigrant, civil rights and human rights advocates have for decades decried and publicly questioned the motives of groups such as CIS, NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which share foundational origins.

The three groups were directly or indirectly founded by John Tanton, a Michigan ophthalmologist who promoted an unorthodox vision of population control and environmentalism through reduced immigration that’s been widely panned as eugenicist.

Tanton at one point was involved in funding a movie version of “The Camp of the Saints,” a 1973 novel that itself is seen as foundational for the "great replacement theory," a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that says the power and numbers of white people are being diminished by nonwhite people.

The Tanton network groups are partially funded by the Colcom Foundation — a collaboration between Tanton and Cordelia Scaife May, a Mellon-Scaife family fortune heiress — which calls for immigration restrictions so “the U.S. can stabilize and gradually decrease its population, thereby shrinking its ecological footprint.”

And the three groups provided much of the ideology, inside knowledge and even manpower for the Trump administration's restructuring of the immigration system.

Yet they publicly disavow the invasion terminology that Republicans have adopted.

“No, we don't use it, and I know Jessica Vaughan, I've heard her say that she doesn't think we should use it — our side. And I mean, here's the thing. There's two questions here: one is whether it constitutes an actual invasion,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA.

“The first part is, it's hard to argue that it's an invasion when they're being invited in, right? No. 1, people aren't showing up to the border armed.”

Ruark added there are concerns over incidents such as the border “bumrush” in Texas in March and tensions between migrants and the Border Patrol, “but there's not widespread assaults, they're not, you know — they're turning themselves in, they’re getting fingerprinted and then they're being released even though they're inadmissible, but it doesn't constitute something that would be called an invasion, in our opinion.”

But Republicans, egged on by former President Trump, who’s been using the term in the immigration context since at least 2018, are all in on calling migration “an invasion.”

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a potential Trump running mate, used the term in a social media post Friday blaming President Biden for the number of people who have entered the United States through the southwest border.

The rhetorical issue has taken on real-world consequences in the fight between Texas and the federal government over immigration jurisdiction.

The Constitution allows states to engage in war if “actually invaded,” a clause Texas officials have cited to justify the state’s crackdowns, though three appeals courts in the 1990s rejected the idea that a surge in migration numbers qualifies as an actual invasion.

In January, the issue hit the House Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing to parse federal versus state jurisdiction. Republicans largely argued the issue was a legal one, and Democrats retorted it was purely political.

Whether legal or political, the language can have grave consequences, say critics of rhetoric that seems to have superseded its ideological underpinnings.

“They're off their rocker, and they're doing damage to the country not just in terms of the policy, but in terms of their rhetoric — and it's not a coincidence that the El Paso shooter, the Buffalo shooter, the Pittsburgh shooter, and I think I'm missing at least one more, and maybe more than that, all cited invasion rhetoric in their pre-shooting-spree manifestos and social media posts,” said Mario H. Lopez, president of the conservative Hispanic Leadership Fund and a longtime critic of the Tanton network.

The Tanton groups don’t engage in the political use of invasion language and don’t disavow politicians who use it but do remain wary of potential fallout.

“When Donald Trump talks about it, he's a double-edged sword here, because he talks — he raises the issue, but he's not very good at the policy aspects of it,” Ruark said.

Despite their stylistic differences, immigration restriction advocates and Republicans hard-liners share a common short-term goal: to pass more legislation based on H.R. 2, a hawkish bill passed by the House GOP but ignored by the Senate in May.

Speaker Johnson, meanwhile, is engaged in a scuffle with some of his former Freedom Caucus allies for refusing to hold Ukraine aid hostage to Senate passage of H.R. 2, and instead proposing the End the Border Catastrophe Act, which included elements of H.R. 2 but failed Saturday in the House, as a bipartisan coalition led by Johnson passed a $95 billion foreign aid package, including $61 billion to Ukraine.

The alternate border bill was seen as appeasement to the party's right, but it never stood a chance, as it needed a two-thirds majority to pass under suspension of the rules.

Hard-line Republicans including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Bob Good (Va.) had preemptively dismissed the new border bill as a distraction, with Greene writing it off as a “shiny object.”

That sort of political bickering mirrors Trump’s “double-edged sword,” as the Tanton groups have never before wielded as much political influence as they do now, though their allies in government present a tone and language that restrictionists have publicly avoided.

Groups such as NumbersUSA have spent decades cultivating an image as a sober, calm, immigrant-friendly voice on the restrictionist side of the immigration debate, but their longtime critics say support for doomed bills like H.R. 2 belies that notion.

“If you cared about actual border security, you would propose things and support things that bring order and are a simpler, fairer, more efficient legal process, because that's the only thing that is going to stop illegal immigration,” Lopez said.

“The orderly, more efficient process for legal immigration — it is the only thing. You cannot turn any quote-unquote ‘magnet’ — the term they use — off, because the magnet isn't any one of the things that they say it is. The magnet is America itself.”

Leaders of both the Texas House and Senate transportation committees were among those who toured the region.

Texas state Sen. Robert Nichols, a Republican who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, and State Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat from Edinburg who chairs the House Transportation Committee, were both part of the group that met at the Anzalduas International Bridge for a roundtable discussion with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

The bridge is currently undergoing an $83 million expansion that should be completed in February 2025 and will allow fully loaded commercial trucks to cross back and forth to Reynosa, Mexico, from this busy port of entry.

The roundtable discussion was closed to media, but Nichols told Border Report afterward that he is impressed with the unity among Rio Grande Valley lawmakers who "advocate for this area. That's the most unique thing I see. Something so large and yet local officials all come together," he said.

Nichols is a former member of the Texas Department of Transportation commission and "is an extremely important person when it comes to this region seeking not only the extra funding that it needs but the support that it needs in the Texas House and Senate to move this region forward from an infrastructure standpoint," Canales told Border Report.

Texas state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, is vice chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He said he was glad to show Nichols around and meet with other lawmakers as they gear up to present pitches for more transportation funds from the state in the upcoming Texas Legislature.

“We have a backlog of trucking companies in Mexico that are waiting to cross. Right now it takes forever. So time is money. The faster they can come across and deliver the goods and products, the better it will be in terms of expanding our economy," Hinojosa said.

Several lawmakers said the biggest goal for the region to have the new International Bridge Trade Corridor (IBTC) completed by 2029.

The State of Texas has approved $237 million for a new International Bridge Trade Corridor highway that will connect five South Texas ports of entry to better foster trade with Mexico.

Canales says the IBTC will be a boon for the region that will allow 18-wheeler trucks loaded with goods from Mexico to move quickly north onto highways and out of neighborhoods.

The International Bridge Trade Corridor is a 13-mile, four-lane divided non-toll highway that is to be built in Hidalgo County to better connect the international bridges that are located between the towns of Pharr to Donna.

Anzalduas International Bridge is farther west, but by expanding it lawmakers say it will reduce the wait times at the Pharr International Bridge, which is the No. 1 international port of entry in the United States for agriculture.

“There’s a lot of construction going on. We have over 1 billion dollars under contract right now here in deep South Texas. And so these projects are all intended to help move freight and trade, if you will, and connect our region as a whole," said Pete Alvarez, TXDOT engineer based in Pharr.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly walked into court Monday morning confident he would be acquitted in the death of a Mexican national who died on his property. But that didn't happen. Instead, the judge declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach an agreement after days of deliberations.

Now, it's up to prosecutors to decide if they want to try the case again.

Kelly, who is 75, said multiple times over the week that he was confident he would be going home a free man. Now, after a four-week trial and three days of deliberations, he's still waiting to find out his future.

A jury had to decide if Kelly was guilty of shooting and killing 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, a Mexican national, on his property in January of 2023.

Kelly was charged with second-degree murder, but there were also lesser charges on the table, including negligent homicide or manslaughter. However, the group of eight jurors could not come to a consensus, reaching an impasse twice over the past three days. Kelly's co-counsel told NewsNation the decision was seven to one in Kelly's favor.

"It is what it is, and it will be what it will be. Let me go home," Kelly told NewsNation after court was dismissed. "I will keep fighting forever. I won't stop."

On Monday, the state and defense will reconvene to discuss the next steps, which could possibly include a retrial. Kelly's lawyer anticipates some challenges for the state, citing a lack of recovered bullets and difficulty securing testimony from a key witness who is from Honduras but lives in Mexico.

Kelly's attorney said the jury didn't even believe the witness was there and said the state couldn't definitively prove where Kelly was standing when firing his weapon or the time of death.

Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards away on his cattle ranch. Kelly has said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.

For the defense, all they had to do was cast a shadow of doubt on the prosecution's case that someone else could have done it in an area that is known for rampant human trafficking and drug smuggling with a cartel presence.

The community has been dealing with the case for the past 14 months, but it hasn't received much national media attention. Many people NewsNation spoke to said they were aware of the case but didn't know the details.

One individual told NewsNation there was a possibility the cartel was present on the property, and he wasn't sure the state conducted the investigation properly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Multiple motorists on the Chihuahua-Juarez Highway reported the bodies to police early Sunday 20 miles north of Chihuahua City.

First responders found the victims with multiple stab wounds and some with signs of asphyxia; a sign from an unidentified criminal group was left at the scene warning rivals to stay away from Chihuahua, police confirmed. The sign quoted a song associated with the state of Sonora, one of the bastions of the Sinaloa cartel.

“We found a burned vehicle (18 miles) to the north that could be related to this event. They used it to move the bodies,” State Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya told a Border Report camera crew. “We have a precedent of homicides committed in that area directly related to human trafficking.”

Migrants by the hundreds of thousands have passed through Chihuahua in the past five years on their way to the U.S. border. In recent months, as Mexican federal officials have cracked down on migrants riding cargo trains from southern Mexico to Juarez, migrants have converged on makeshift tent encampments in Chihuahua City before walking, hitching rides or paying to be taken to Juarez.

Also on Monday, Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui told reporters two victims have been identified as residents of Sinaloa, and that the burned vehicle was traced to them. The two possibly had been abducted days earlier.

Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico, in the past few years, has been a battleground between gangs associated with the Sinaloa cartel and La Linea, the strongest of the remnants of the old Juarez cartel. The newspaper El Diario last week reported that three criminal groups control migrant smuggling in the Juarez corridor, with La Linea claiming most of the El Paso border, La Empresa operating to the west and Sinaloa holding on to everything east of the city.

He'd convinced his parents to sign a waiver so recruiters would allow him to sign up, and he served for three years during the Vietnam War.

While taking part in a military training exercise, he fell off a truck and was badly hurt.

The injuries he suffered on that day were misdiagnosed and never treated properly, according to family and friends.

"That accident back in 1975 caused him a life from that point forward of pain," said Robert Vivar, of the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center. "He struggled to be able to deal with the pain from the injuries he sustained."

Juarez also struggled with being away from home.

He was raised in Sherman Heights near downtown San Diego.

But he was deported for having undocumented migrants in his car and would spend almost 30 years waiting to come back home to the U.S.

Vivar says a few weeks back, he got a message from Juarez asking for help. He had called others, too, complaining of intense pain in his leg.

By the time they got him to a hospital in Tijuana, it was too late. Juarez died the next day on March 17.

The official cause of death has not been made public.

"He died waiting to come home," said Vivar.

Juarez was among the hundreds of foreign-born veterans of the U.S. armed forces who lost their lawful immigration status after being convicted of crimes.

Even when his mother was dying, his request for permission to visit her was rejected, Vivar said.

"Mother was dying, his request for permission to visit her was rejected," Vivar said.

"We thought at least he would be able to be with her in her last days, but that was impossible, we thought at least he would be here for her funeral, that was not possible either, it got denied."

Vivar said lawyers from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center were in the process of trying once again to get Juarez to the U.S. so he could get medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he died waiting for a response.

"We have many vets around the world still waiting to come home to get medical treatment, to visit family, whatever the case may be," said Vivar. "Here in Tijuana alone, there are 15 to 20 veterans. I know for a fact we got at least five that if they don't get medical care soon, they might not be with us much longer."

Vivar says these veterans could be saved, and Juarez might still be alive if Congress passed legislation that has been on the table for a few years.

"This is not an immigration issue, it's a veterans issue," he said. "We need them to work together across the aisle like they did for the Ukraine aid bill to sign the Veterans Service Recognition Act so that not one more of our Veterans has to die in exile without receiving proper medical care they deserve and are entitled to."

Juarez died a month before his 68th birthday. He leaves his wife, Elizabeth, three children, and six grandsons behind.

The charges stemmed from an April 12 mass illegal crossing from Mexico into the United States in which migrants cut or tore down razor wire placed by Texas in front of Gate 36 of the border wall in El Paso. A state prosecutor alleged the “push” forward by 142 migrants out of a group of more than 300 that forced Guard members to “back off” constitutes a riot.

Border Report has documented at least two other instances (March 21 and March 24) of multiple arrests on various charges by state authorities who have set up barriers along the river several yards in front of the U.S. border wall to discourage migrants from crossing the border between ports of entry.

But a public defender said the arrest affidavits don’t say what each migrant did April 12, nor name an officer or agent who saw them do it. She said migrants who followed the crowd may not have been aware of what happened at the front of the crowd.

“It’s like someone at the front of a line at a concert gets in a fight with the bouncer and you arrest everyone that was in line,” El Paso County Chief Public Defender Kelli Childress said.

El Paso County Court-at-Law No. 7 Judge Ruben Morales said the arrest affidavits didn’t show probable cause that everyone named in the documents participated in the riot. He excluded from his ruling two individuals, one who was never arrested and one being held on a felony charge.

“The question is whether the affidavits provide the necessary probable cause to believe this individual named has committed the offense of rioting. Not whether there was a riot, and people were involved in that, or that he was in the group of (300-plus), but that this person took some specific action detailed in the affidavit,” the judge said in court.

Morales added he could give prosecutors and the defense time later to present witnesses and additional documents, but that the bar for his ruling on the probable cause of the case to keep people in jail is lower.

Jennifer Lynn Vandenbosch, who represented the state at the hearing, said the migrants would not be walking out of jail, anyway, because the federal government has placed immigration detainers on all of them for illegal entry into the United States. That means they must stay at the county jail for up to another 48 hours until the Border Patrol picks them up.

After the ruling, Childress said the state wants to charge large numbers of migrants coming across the border.

"To defend real charges is one thing, but what we have is mass arrests that don't have probable cause. What we're seeing is an effort to get the headline, to get it on the news that 142 migrants breached the border, and they're using inflammatory language that's just not true," she said. "With the very limited resources we are going to fight very hard those that are true injustices as opposed to that have real evidence of criminal action."

Vandenbosch declined to speak with reporters after Monday's hearing and referred further questions to District Attorney Bill Hicks.

In court, she complained repeatedly that the court did not give prosecutors sufficient notice -- she said the state was notified of the hearing Sunday night -- to prepare.

El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks said in a news conference on Tuesday, April 23 that he was considering an appeal of the ruling.

He said his office took 141 cases to a grand jury, which believes there is probable cause to charge the migrants with riot participation. Hicks also said they objected to the hearing because they didn't have adequate advance notice and were not fully aware of what the hearing would cover.

Kelly is on trial in connection to the fatal shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, an unarmed migrant, on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly is facing second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges for the Jan. 30, 2023, killing.

The state argued that pushing the jury to continue deliberating after expressing an impasse could be coercive, but the defense countered that jurors had only briefly considered the new instructions before indicating they were deadlocked and should be given more time.

The jury said it was at an impasse and could not reach a unanimous decision on either count. A status hearing is scheduled for Monday, April 29.

Cuen-Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. Court records show Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the U.S. illegally several times and was deported, most recently in 2016.

Cuen-Buitimea was in a group of men that Kelly encountered on his property. Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle toward the group that was about 100 yards away.

Kelly said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone, explaining that he feared for his safety and that of his wife and property.

“He says he shot 100 yards over their heads. But he never told law enforcement that he was in fear of his life," Jette said in closing arguments.

Kelly fired nine shots toward the group, according to Jette, who said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.

Kelly discovered the body after detectives scoured the area, but no bullet was ever recovered.

The other migrants on Kelly's ranch in 2023 weren’t injured and managed to escape back to Mexico.

The trial that started March 22 included jurors visiting Kelly’s nearly 170-acre cattle ranch in Nogales, Arizona.

Earlier in proceedings, Kelly rejected an agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

But more American companies — including a Maine lobster outfit — are working with newcomers who do become authorized to work, providing support or jobs for migrants while filling out their labor forces in the process.

“Work authorization is just something that as Americans we sort of take for granted: the right to work and feed our families," Sarah Flagel, a Chicago-based Asylum Legal Clinic Managing Attorney at World Relief, told NewsNation. "And that is definitely not something this population takes for granted.”

As the majority of new arrivals are waiting for work authorizations, officials in sanctuary cities are offering clinics to make more asylum-seekers legal to work. 

But how to get more migrants to work both legally and faster remains one of the main issues at the heart of America's ongoing migrant crisis.

Migrant workers take to the sea

Luke’s Lobster in Maine has been hiring immigrants to help with its lobster processing operation since 2013, four years after the company started as a single restaurant. Today, it has 31 locations around the U.S., Singapore and Japan.

Immigrants from places like Cambodia and Latin America have traditionally played a key role in the lobstering business in Maine, according to Luke's co-founder Ben Conniff.

For some, seafood processing has been the perfect entry-level job as migrants navigate a new life in the U.S. Others end up staying with companies like Luke's for decades.

Conniff said that making sure workers are authorized to work in the U.S. is just part of the onboarding process at Luke's. Potential employees are required to provide the necessary paperwork to human resources to prove that they are legal to work in the United States before they join the company's payroll.

The company hasn't received any backlash or resentment from local residents about its hiring practices, Conniff said.

"If anything, I think we've gotten appreciation because people in the lobster industry understand that without a team to process the lobster, a lot of that lobster would go unsold," Conniff told NewsNation. "Everybody gets harmed if the market for the lobster gets harmed, and if there aren't people who are doing the work of processing, then the lobster market really gets harmed."

On-the-job training

In 2022, Luke's introduced a program called "Lift All Boats," which provides underserved populations with on-the-job training. The popular program mainly works with young people, some of whom start the program with a fear of water and boats and end up falling in love with lobstering, Conniff said.

The program has become so popular among young people, including migrants, that there are more applicants to get into the program than there are spots, Conniff said. Students in the program are trained over the summer and slowly brought along to teach them all aspects of lobstering.

No matter where newcomers — including those who have arrived from the U.S. southern border since 2022 — end up within the company, they serve a big purpose at Luke's.

Over time, Conniff says he has come to learn some of the harrowing migrant journeys these people have taken to arrive in the States, along with the delays many have endured just to gain work authorizations.

"We're not hiring people to do favors for them," Conniff said. "These folks are the backbone of the lobster industry, and our company couldn't exist without them."

Conniff told NewsNation that among Luke's production business, 75 of the 100 people working on that part of the operation are immigrants.

Partnering for solutions

Among the largest challenges facing both migrants and companies hoping to provide jobs to immigrants is the issue of work authorization. Even those new arrivals who obtain status as asylum-seekers must wait six months before they can legally work in the U.S.

Most migrants must wait for immigration hearings, which in many cases can take three to four years, placing them in limbo when it comes to making ends meet while they wait.

A U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson told NewsNation that partnerships between federal, state, and local agencies are critical to support newcomers and all workers in building pathways to good jobs.

In January, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced plans to establish an "Office of New Americans" to address the state's shortage of workers in professions like health care, education and construction, the governor said.

The new office will be charged with "welcoming and supporting immigrants to strengthen Maine's workforce," enhancing the state's communities and building a strong and inclusive economy.

Elsewhere, in Denver, city officials recently announced an Asylum Seekers Program that helps to fast-track things like work authorizations. Nearly 1,600 migrants have become legal to work since arriving.

“That happens as a result of either a lack of work authorization or a lack of certifications or available work,” Jon Ewing, the spokesman for the Denver Department of Human Services, told NewsNation.

In Chicago, the local effort involves organizations such as World Relief, which is among the national not-for-profit humanitarian groups working to get more immigrants legally set up to work, Flagel said.

Organizations like World Relief conduct workshops to provide new arrivals with as much information about a complicated process as possible.

"(Information) means power, it means access to resources, it means access to sustainability and keeping your family together, and the freedom that comes with economic stability that is in their near future if they can just get a work permit," Flagel said.

As of April 12, a partnership between the Illinois Department of Human Services and local not-for-profits led to nearly 6,000 work permit applications being submitted, an agency spokeswoman told NewsNation.

“What aren’t our federal government officials seeing when these things happen,” she asked Sunday on “NewsNation Prime.”

Ward is among the Pennsylvania senate Republicans who passed a resolution last month calling on Gov. Josh Shapiro to send National Guard troops south.

“In Texas, they need some help. They need some backup.”

Shapiro quickly rejected the idea. "This issue requires leaders in both parties to step up and deliver real, comprehensive solutions — not more of the failed talking points and political grandstanding that have brought us decades without immigration reform,” said Manuel Bonder, the governor’s spokesperson.

One Pennsylvania Guard member, Cam Pursel, also believes it’s a bad idea.

“I know the role the National Guard should play, and I’ve agreed to put my life on the line to serve our country. But I am not willing to do so, nor have my life uprooted, for political theater,” Pursel wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Jeffrey Stiffarm, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, testified that the Sinaloa Cartel operates with near impunity in his region, capitalizing on chronic underfunding of law enforcement on the 652,000-acre reservation patrolled by just nine officers.

"We are fighting a losing battle. The cartels are winning, the drug dealers are winning," Stiffarm told Congress. "We are left alone to fight this battle against them."

Stiffarm told "NewsNation Prime" that up to hundreds of thousands of cartel operatives have infiltrated reservations across the American West, using the isolated lands as havens to traffic fentanyl pills and other drugs into the United States without scrutiny from federal authorities.

"They know we're short-staffed, underfunded, under-trained and outnumbered," said Stiffarm, a former law enforcement officer for two decades. "They're preying on our people, our children, our women. They get a foothold in and they're here."

The Fort Belknap leader described cartel tactics like staging fake emergencies to divert the limited police presence, then quickly shuttling narcotics across other parts of the reservation undercover.

But the devastation transcends drug running, as cartel operatives deeply embed themselves in tribal communities grappling with 70% unemployment rates and that are hours from urban centers. Stiffarm said rapes and murders committed by cartels have become tragically commonplace.

Montana's health department data shows Native American overdose death rates over twice that of other state residents. The Blackfeet Nation declared an emergency last year after 17 overdoses in just one week.

Stiffarm said federal agencies including the FBI, Border Patrol and Bureau of Indian Affairs have failed to intervene, paralyzed by jurisdictional gaps that cartel operatives expertly exploit. The Belknap law enforcement budget has only grown from $1.2 million to $1.3 million since 1997, according to Stiffarm.

"We're the first people of this country, and we're always overlooked, pushed aside," Stiffarm said referring to the foreign aid bill Congress passed Saturday. "They send $95 billion to kill people overseas but can't spare pennies to save their own on reservations being ravaged by cartels."

Stiffarm, who said he feared retaliation from cartels, made the appeal in hopes of finally receiving backup to combat forces he warned are overtaking tribal lands across the northern plains.

"If it's at the risk of my own life, then so be it," he said. "That's my job - to protect our people."

In particular, there's concern over successful efforts to launch illicit drug manufacturing operations in America's heartland.

New numbers from Homeland Security Republicans show more than 24,000 Chinese nationals have been encountered at the southwest border so far in 2024. In just six months, that number has surpassed all encounters with Chinese nationals in the last fiscal and that number is expected to grow.

NewsNation cameras were rolling near San Diego last year, where exclusive video showed long lines of Chinese men with bags packed, being processed by border control along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The surge has captured the attention of 50 lawmakers, who penned a strongly-worded letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, warning about the ongoing threat. They are particularly concerned with a booming illicit marijuana industry and the likelihood that it could bleed into other violent crimes threatening Americans.

The lawmakers wrote, "The thousands of illicit Chinese marijuana growing operations pose a direct threat to public safety, human rights, national security and the addiction crisis gripping our nation."

Reports indicate the Chinese organized crime rings are highly connected to the Chinese Communist Party.

A leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security indicated 270 illegal marijuana grows in Maine generated some $4 billion in revenue. In Oklahoma, 2,000 marijuana farms have been linked to China.

During a Congressional hearing this week, lawmakers discussed the ongoing threat posed by the CCP and its efforts to disrupt legitimate American businesses and conduct long-standing espionage.

They also said China is directly fueling America's fentanyl crisis by providing the chemicals used to produce the drug.

On Thursday, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., one of the lawmakers who signed on to the letter, confronted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the ongoing threat.

"Communist China has poisoned our nation and taken the lives of more than 75,000 Americans each and every year," Scott said. "I assume that you know this but I can't see anything that shows that you care about it."

Mayorkas responded to the contrary.

"We are seeking to tackle that challenge in a very difficult relationship," he said. "We are very focused on the scourge of fentanyl from all perspectives."

The southern border isn't the only entry route for Chinese nationals, with more than 1,000 crossing the northern border every month for the past five months.

NewsNation has been constantly following this story for more than a year and will continue to keep an eye on the trends as lawmakers work to find a solution.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, says federal funds from the FEMA Shelter and Services Program were never intended to pay for transportation or flights to other U.S. cities for migrants who cross the border into the United States. The money is intended to reimburse non-governmental organizations and municipalities for food and shelter and toiletry expenses they incur housing asylum-seekers who cross the border.

But Cuellar says Catholic Charities of San Antonio's downtown humanitarian facility is buying airline tickets, and that is drawing migrants to this city because they want free transportation to other cities where they will live while they wait for their immigration proceedings to play out.

"We talked to Holding Institute and they said that when they talk to migrants they want to go to San Antonio and part of the reason is because they pay for transportation. And they say, ‘Queremos ir al San Pedro,’ which is the street where they have this migrant center. And they call it the milk and honey place," Cuellar recently told Border Report.

He says officials with Holding Institute, a nonprofit in his hometown of Laredo that provides humanitarian care and shelter for migrants whom DHS legally releases, have said most migrants want to go to San Antonio because they have heard about the free rides.

Cuellar says he helped to start this program and get federal funding for it beginning in Fiscal Year 2015.

He says the money was never intended to pay for long-distance transportation. He said the program rules do allow for a "set percentage" of funds to go toward transportation. He believes it should be used for emergency use or within the city of the nonprofit, not airline tickets.

"When I first started this program, I said it would only be used for food and shelter, maybe transportation inside a city, but not to be sending them up there. The family or somebody should pay for that, not the taxpayer dollars," Cuellar said.

U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican whose district spans from the South Texas border north to east of San Antonio, says this is a misappropriation of federal taxpayer dollars.

“These tax dollars were not intended to be used to fly illegal immigrants all over their country to the destination of their choice," De La Cruz told Border Report on Thursday. "They misused funds and sent these illegal immigrants where their preferred destination was with taxpayers hard-earned money. This is just simply unacceptable.”

Border Report recently visited the downtown Catholic Charities facility in San Antonio and requested to interview officials but was not given access or allowed to record video on their premises.

Border Report has repeatedly asked Catholic Charities of San Antonio to provide information on whether they buy airline tickets for migrants, how many, and if there's a dollar cap and why. So far, we have not received an answer.

A spokeswoman with the nonprofit sent Border Report an email announcing the organization has become eligible to receive $10.8 million in additional funding through the FEMA Shelter and Services Program for its MRS Centro de Bienvenida temporary shelter. The shelter provides humanitarian aid and since September 2022 has assisted over 305,000 people.

The facility provides "safety, meals, hygiene kits, and blankets to those in need," the organization said. "This funding will ensure that newcomers receive necessary services, including shelter, food, and clothing. In addition to meeting basic needs, Catholic Charities provides wrap-around services such as trauma-informed care, mental health counseling, legal assistance, and pastoral care to those who may have experienced trauma. Catholic Charities is committed to serving the most vulnerable among us with love, dignity, and respect."

In a statement, Catholic Charities of San Antonio President and CEO J. Antonio Fernandez said, “By securing these additional funds, we will be able to continue serving our brothers and sisters and their families who require care through selfless service under the sign of love."

Andrea Rudnik, of the nonprofit Team Brownsville, which helps migrants at the Welcome Center in Brownsville, Texas, says the tranches of funds mean the organizations are deemed eligible for up to a certain amount of money.

"It's allocated to them. But it's not given to them," Rudnik said.

They then have to submit a budget and tell FEMA how they intend to use the funds, such as for housing, transportation, food, over-the-counter medication, and staff hired to help asylum-seekers.

Funding for the Shelter and Services Program was decreased by about 20% overall this Fiscal 2024 year, lawmakers say.

De La Cruz says she voted for it only after the cuts were made.

"We actually made a 20% cut to NGOs. And the reason we did that is because the American taxpayers are frustrated. They're frustrated with the open border policy by the Biden administration. They're frustrated that their tax dollars are being used for things like flights for these illegal immigrants to go anywhere in the country that they'd like. Look, I'm a single mom, I can't even afford a vacation with my kids. And these illegal immigrants are flown anywhere they want. Too many Americans like myself are living paycheck to paycheck and it's very frustrating to see these funds misused," De La Cruz said.

DHS announced Friday that $300 million was awarded nationwide in Fiscal 2024 for the Shelter and Services Program.

Catholic Charities of San Antonio received one of the larger grant tranches, compared with many other organizations.

According to DHS, the New York City Office of Management and Budget received the most eligible funding this fiscal year: $38.8 million.

Thousands of asylum-seekers have been bused to New York City from Texas under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star border security initiative.

Pima County, Arizona, received $21 million, and Catholic Charities of San Diego and San Diego County were each awarded $19.5 million.

Other awards include:

• Mission Border Hope, in Eagle Pass, Texas: $12 million
• Maricopa County, Arizona: $11.6 million
• World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task Force, Inc, based in Maricopa, Arizona: $11.6 million
• City of Atlanta: $10.8 million
• City of Chicago: $9.6 million
• Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley: $7.4 million
• El Paso County: $4.5 million
• City of McAllen: $3.9 million
• San Antonio Food Bank: $2.4 million
• Catholic Charities of Laredo: $1.6 million
• Team Brownsville: $360,000

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

H.R. 8058 is prompted by several documented instances of U.S. teens dying while driving cars loaded with undocumented migrants at high speed and cases involving minors attempting to transport drugs from border cities to larger cities like Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I’ve heard directly from families, educators and law enforcement about the predatory recruitment of minors to facilitate illegal smuggling of drugs and people,” said bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico. “Every student deserves a childhood free from manipulation and fear. This bill provides the education needed in our border communities to counter predatory smugglers and cartel activity.”

The bill also known as the No More Narcos Act calls for law enforcement agencies, educators and community organizers to carry out an educational campaign targeting middle and high school students in learning centers located within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Funded with cash and property seizures from criminals, the campaign is to inform the students about the perils associated with working for the cartels – violent transnational criminal organizations engaged in a multitude of illicit activities. Border Report last December documented how Mexican cartel members have come across the border to collect from or intimidate American students who took money but failed to deliver migrants from the border wall to stash houses.

Police in Sunland Park, N.M., one of the nation’s busiest communities when it comes to migrant smuggling, as well as a New Mexico teachers’ union support the bill.

“New Mexico’s students are our most precious resource. As educators, we should be doing everything in our power to protect them from the harmful influence of criminal organizations,” said Whitney Holland, president of the American Federation of Teachers in New Mexico.

Co-sponsor U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, said Mexican cartels have increased their activities and presence not just on the border but also in communities across the United States. But he said border communities like Sunland Park – north of the border from Juarez, Mexico – are on the front lines of the problem.

The agency is asking for public comments on its proposal which would also include almost 20 miles of upgrading current lights and adding river access roads in Starr and El Paso counties.

CBP has given the public through Monday, which is Earth Day, to comment on its plans that the agency says are necessary for border enforcement.

"CBP seeks input on potential impacts to the environment, culture, quality of life and commerce, including potential socioeconomic impacts," the agency posted on its website.

The agency says it also is conducting data and input from state and local governments, other federal agencies, Native American tribes "and landowners that may be affected by, or otherwise have an interest in, the proposed action" as it prepares an environmental assessment.

Maps posted for planned lighting projects in Starr and El Paso counties do not list exact mileage for each proposed sector's project.

Proposed plans to add lighting and fix existing non-operational lighting for El Paso, above, and Starr County. (CBP Graphics)

Laiken Jordahl, of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, says his organization opposes adding bright lights, which could affect nocturnal animals as well as migrating birds along the border.

“This kind of stadium bright, high-voltage lighting is well understood to be a major stressor to wildlife," Jordahl told Border Report on Wednesday. "This lighting would completely disrupt the ecosystems where it would be installed. And Border Patrol needs to take a good hard look at the impacts of this project before moving forward.”

Jordahl is the Southwest Conservation Advocate for this NGO that has filed numerous lawsuits opposing border wall construction. He says they are watching this current plan carefully and could also decide to take legal action.

He says the maps are confusing, and more information needs to be released to the public. He said he would like to know if the areas also follow plans for building 20 miles of new federal border wall in Starr County.

"Border Patrol is asking the scientific community for comments on the harms of lighting, but they're ignoring the impacts that these border walls will cause," he said.

He said the "high-stadium lights" could disrupt the viewing of sky observatories in West Texas, as well as the nocturnal habits of desert bats.

“The El Paso area already suffers from some degree of light pollution from the Juarez Valley from the urban El Paso stretches. But adding additional light pollution is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be mitigating the existing sources of light pollution there in order to restore dark-night skies for people and for wildlife that depend on the natural dark to be able to navigate, to hunt, to feed, and to find mates," Jordahl said.

He said adding miles of border lights in South Texas could affect the migratory patterns of thousands of wild birds like those found at the Salineño Wildlife Preserve in far western Starr County.

• CBP says comments can be emailed to: CommentsENV@cbp.dhs.gov.

• You may also provide comments, questions, or concerns by calling (888) 322-4958.

• Or by mail: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. 6.5E Mail Stop 1039
Washington, D.C. 20229-1100
ATTN: Michelle Barnes

CBP has already said that 20 miles of planned border wall being built in Starr County will not include construction through the birding preserve, however, Jordahl says lights put up in the area will severely affect birds in the region.

It's "really important habitat for wildlife, and nocturnal wildlife like birds and bats and ocelots who hunt there. It's also a critically important migratory flyway used by millions of birds," he said. "There are tons of scientific studies that show quite clearly that lighting affects birds and their navigation that affects where they nest, it affects how they are hunted. It completely alters their systems, and especially in such a critically important corridor for migratory birds, we should absolutely not be installing new, polluting sources of stadium bright lighting."

The agency requests comments and data or information "that could help inform CBP’s analysis of potential impacts. Helpful comments are fact-based, include links to data or research, and provide specific information concerning potential impacts to the environment, culture, as well as quality of life and commerce, including potential socioeconomic impacts."

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

The murder trial for the Arizona rancher wrapped up with closing arguments Thursday. The state had requested more than 90 minutes, but the judge denied that request, saying he believes the jury has been given all of the facts repeatedly.

The state has accused Kelly of shooting and killing Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, a Mexican national who was on the private Kino Springs property.

One alleged eyewitness named Daniel claimed to be with Cuen-Buitimea, but defense attorneys attempted to poke holes in his testimony as they pointed out several discrepancies.  

Kelly is facing second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges for the Jan. 30, 2023, incident.

His defense says he fired warning shots to scare off the five people Kelly says he saw running through his property, possibly armed in camouflage with backpacks.

He maintains he didn’t shoot at anybody or hit anyone when he fired several shots from his rifle.

Kelly discovered the body after detectives scoured the area, but no bullet was ever recovered. 

That’s one of the reasons why Kelly and his team think things will go their way. 

The jury began deliberating soon as closing arguments ended. Kelly told NewsNation he expects a verdict Friday.