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FLORENCE, Ariz. (AP) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection is casting a wide net to recruit more Border Patrol agents and customs officers to protect the nation's borders. The agency is recruiting at events like massive music festival Country Thunder and the Professional Bull Riders rodeo....

NACO – An incomplete cross-border tunnel was uncovered by a construction worker clearing old fencing near Naco. According to Christopher Sullivan, a public information officer and Border Patrol agent based out of the Tucson sector, the construction worker contacted Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents at the Brian A. Terry Station to report a “possible smuggling tunnel.” Following an investigation, agents discovered the unfinished tunnel. “The tunnel was approximately 15 feet deep and extended into the United States about four feet from the international boundary fence,” he said. “The tunnel has no ventilation or lighting.” The tunnel has already been filled...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., has introduced bipartisan legislation to boost national security and alleviate the shortage of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Border Patrol agents along the border. The bill will provide the Commissioner of CBP with discretionary authority to expedite the hiring of existing law enforcement officers and veterans who meet CBP background checks and experience standards. "Fully staffing our CBP officers at our ports of entry and Border Patrol agents between the ports of entry is vital for security and economic growth of our communities and nation,” said McSally, Chairwoman of the...

U.S. Border Patrol agents are once again sounding the alarm about miles of border being left wide open and unsecured. Breitbart Texas exclusively obtained a document showing a Havre Sector Border Patrol manager knowingly issuing orders to leave 40 miles of border open and unpatrolled. Obama holdovers in the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency are continuing with the same careless disregard in the Trump Administration that they did under former resident Obama, according to Border Patrol agents. Breitbart Texas has the specific order that was given to the agents signed by the Obama-holdover manager. The order demands that agents...

EXCLUSIVE – The cartel member suspected of shooting and killing Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010 with a gun supplied by the U.S. government was arrested in Mexico Wednesday, senior law enforcement, Border Patrol, and congressional sources told Fox News. The suspect, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was apprehended by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC). A $250,000 reward had been sought for information leading to the arrest of Osorio-Arellanes, who was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and...

"Senator, had we done our job, that 14-year-old girl would never have been raped. Period. That's all there is to it... “Had we held those individuals in custody, or that one individual in custody pending a determination that this person should be allowed to remain in this country, that rape wouldn't have happened. We failed the citizens of this great nation by not securing the border.”

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos believes he has found the explanation for the recent drop in illegal border crossings reported by immigration officials: fear or what he calls the “Trump effect.” In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN Thursday night, Ramos laid out his theory in detail. “Jorge, the massive drop in border apprehensions last month, the customs border protections says 40 percent, it’s down 40 percent, people trying to cross illegally. What do you make of that?” Cooper asked. “Is it possible that the tough talk on illegal immigration by Trump is working, that he deserves credit for that...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is hailing “a marked change” in immigration trends — a 40-percent decline in illegal border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border between January and February; and a 55-percent decline in “inadmissibles,” who present themselves at Southwest ports of entry but are turned away. […] In February, a total of 18,762 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry on the Southwest Border, compared with 31,578 in January (a 40.58-percent drop) and 43,255 in December,” CBP said. Also in February, a total of 4,808 people presented themselves at ports of entry on the Southwest Border and were deemed...

Since the media and academia are not that interested in crimes committed by illegal aliens, it is hard to get news out of either one on what is actually happening on our southern border. Fortunately, some people with hard information are interested. "I was just out with the border patrol, by air and by gunboat on the Rio," U. S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). "They tell me that since Inauguration Day, illegal crossings across the Rio Valley are down 50 percent." In a free flowing discussion with radio talk show host Mark...

A skirmish has broken out in Tucson as one law enforcement agency has barred another from carrying out its mission. The blue-on-blue battle reflects nationwide concern over just how far various policing bodies will go to enforce the nation’s laws and policies toward immigrants. *snip* According to a previously unreported posting on the Border Patrol Agency Facebook wall, the Tucson Police not only declined to help Border Patrol but actually evicted them from the Tucson Police Department, where they’d established a task force to try to track down the escapee.

A North Carolina congressman is calling for a probe into a potential $418 million contract between Kenya and a major U.S. defense contractor announced on President Obama's last day in office -- a deal the lawmaker claims reeks of cronyism. Republican Rep. Ted Budd wants the Government Accountability Office to investigate a deal between the African nation and New York-based L3 Technologies for the sale of 12 weaponized border patrol planes. He said he wants to know why a veteran-owned small company in North Carolina – which specializes in making such planes – was not considered as the manufacturer. IOMAX...

MISSION — Hours before the president talked about “bad people with bad ideas” entering the country at a rally in Florida, a United States senator strapped on a vest, walked through the thick Rio Grande Valley brush as Friday night turned to Saturday and found what he, President Donald Trump and many discuss in Washington D.C. The senator linked the findings to organized violent crime. “There were more than one that were large, young men with a significant percentage of tattoos that might suggest gang affiliation,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Saturday afternoon, recounting an overnight ride along with...

On Friday morning that Associated Press sent out a series of tweets that were quickly shot down as completely false by the White House and Department of Homeland Security. The first tweet sent out said: “BREAKING: Trump administration considers mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants.” BREAKING: Trump administration considers mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants. — The Associated Press (@AP) February 17, 2017 That was followed up by a tweet saying “Memo obtained by AP shows Trump considering mobilizing the National Guard to round up unauthorized...

Union leader says some stations continue to follow Obama 'catch and release' directives Some border patrol stations have been slow to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement executive order and instead have continued former President Barack Obama’s “catch-and-release” policies, according to a union official. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told LifeZette that he raised concerns Thursday with U.S. Border Patrol Chief Ronald Vitiello. He said he is confident that issue soon will be corrected. But Judd said as recently as Thursday, some border patrol stations were still releasing border-jumpers, often without even issuing notices to...

A thick fog recently blanketed the U.S.-Mexico border along Imperial Beach, Calif., a prime opportunity for border crossers to probe vulnerabilities in both the fence and the beleaguered agency patrolling it. In SUVs or ATVs, Border Patrol agents with video surveillance equipment and binoculars spent hours, as they do every day, scanning the hilly and treacherous terrain that connects Tijuana, Mexico, to Southern California to try and prevent anyone trying to illegally cross the border. By the next morning, the processing rooms at the U.S. Border Patrol Imperial Beach Station were filled with men. They included two men from Turkey...

President Trump's decision to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and stop the free flow of refugees until they can be vetted better is reviving the morale of customs and border agents, according to the union representing both. "Morale amongst our agents and officers has increased exponentially," said a joint statement from the National Border Patrol Council and National ICE Council. "The men and women of ICE and Border Patrol will work tirelessly to keep criminals, terrorists, and public safety threats out of this country, which remains the number one target in the world – and President Trump's actions...

The chief of U.S. Border Patrol, Mark Morgan, left the agency on Thursday one day after President Trump signed an executive order paving the way for a wall to be built on the border with Mexico. Morgan said he was asked to leave his post and resigned to avoid a fight over his job, the Associated Press reported, citing a U.S. official. The official was on a video conference with Morgan and senior Border Patrol agents when the outgoing chief said that he was going to comply with the request.

The Department of Homeland Security has asked U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, a former longtime Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, to step down from his post. News of his departure, expected within a month, comes as the Trump administration moves toward tougher enforcement of immigration laws. Two sources familiar with Morgan's departure told Reuters that he held a morning phone call with employees to say that he was not resigning – but had been asked to leave by the Trump administration. Morgan's ouster also comes the day after President Donald Trump announced a broad plan to crack down on...

A stunning case of corruption inside the Department of Homeland Security was overshadowed by headlines about Russia and Israel this past week. Yet, federal employees accepting millions of dollars in bribes to avoid doing their job, is certainly worth a look. Hundreds of DHS employees have "looked the other way" as drugs crossed the border because cartels have made them offers they can't refuse. Other employees have sold green cards and other documents illegally. More from The New York Times: It was not an isolated case. A review by The New York Times of thousands of court records and...

Smuggling illicit drugs across the U.S border is a lucrative business. From hiding hundreds of pounds of cocaine or marijuana in vehicles, funneling it through tunnels under fenced areas or shipping it across the Florida coastline, drug dealers based in countries like Mexico and Cuba are pretty inventive in finding ways to get their contraband past border agents and into the United States. So inventive, in fact, that U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that over the weekend, drug smugglers in Mexico used an air cannon to launch a pile of weed across the border into the U.S. According to...