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More than half a million illegal immigrants of several dozen nationalities have been apprehended on John Ladd’s sprawling cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. Ladd has also found 14 dead bodies on his 16,500-acre farm, which has been in his family for well over a century and sits between the Mexican border and historic State Route 92. The property shares a 10 ½-mile border with Mexico, making it a popular route for human and drug smugglers evading a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region. “As big as that number sounds, many more got away,” said National Border...

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) announced Friday new legislation aimed at holding border patrol and customs enforcement agents accountable for questioning the immigration status of train and bus passengers. The Department of Homeland Security Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA), would mandate that officers with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) formally maintain records of each time they question a passenger. “Keeping our country safe cannot come at a cost to basic human rights. When border patrol agents stop and question people in New York and in many places across the country, they aren’t keeping data...

An alarming number of migrants from a south Asian Islamic country that’s well known as a terrorism hotbed are trying to enter the United States through the Mexican border in Texas, according to government figures obtained by Judicial Watch. For the second consecutive year U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) stats show that the Laredo Border Patrol Sector is the favorite crossing point into the U.S. for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, a recruiting ground for terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The Laredo Sector continues to a have the...

Maryland Democrat also calls for national single-payer health care systemSenate hopeful Chelsea Manning said she’ll work to abolish federal immigrations and customs agencies if successful in her bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, Maryland Democrat. Ms. Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst convicted of leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks website, listed eliminating both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) as top priorities on her platform unveiled Thursday. “We believe the solution to the so called ‘immigration’ issue, which amounts to nothing more than justification for ethnic cleansing in America, is not...

Since President Trump took office, and especially so this week, he’s often spoke of the illegal drugs flowing over the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week three teenagers, all Mexico natives, were captured by Customs and Border Patrol as they attempted to traffic lethal drugs. What they had strapped to their bodies could’ve killed thousands of Americans, if not more.

Facebook videos showing Border Patrol agents arresting a woman in San Diego went viral Thursday, with immigrant-rights activists saying they show a woman being torn from her children — but the agency said she was actually an “organizer” for a major smuggling operation. Activists seized on the videos as evidence of overbearing enforcement. But the Border Patrol said the woman was a justified target, given her involvement with a smuggling operation and her unauthorized status here in the U.S. ~snip~ The videos, both just less than two minutes long,...

Local By Jason Buch and Joana SantillanaFebruary 12, 2018 Updated: February 12, 2018 7:57pm 7 A long-running feud between a South Texas rancher and the Border Patrol has escalated into a civil lawsuit after the rancher confiscated a surveillance camera he found on his property. The suit filed by Ricardo D. Palacios, a lawyer who lives on a ranch near Encinal, north of Laredo, against federal agents and a Texas Ranger raises questions about how much leeway law enforcement officials have to enter private property near the border. Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your...

The mysterious death last year of a U.S. Border Patrol agent – which has turned into a political football reaching the White House – did not appear to result from an attack or fight, the FBI announced Wednesday. Agent Rogelio Martinez died in November 2017 outside Van Horn, Texas, about 110 miles southeast of El Paso. According to an autopsy report from the El Paso County Office of the Medical Examiner, the cause of Martinez’s death is blunt force injuries of the head, but the manner of death is still undetermined.

Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas found a 75-foot tunnel along the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande river – and one former Border Patrol chief believes its origins could go back 100 years. The tunnel was found when Texas Department of Transportation employees were building near downtown and notified Border Patrol agents of a cave in. The Border Patrol’s Confined Space Entry Team went inside to take a look and found it goes further into the U.S. but not into Mexico. “Remediation efforts are already under way, which include filling the tunnel with concrete. At this time we...

The Border Patrol announced its third arrest of an illegal immigrant “Dreamer” on smuggling charges this week, saying agents nabbed a 26-year-old man who had picked up four illegal immigrants who just snuck into the U.S. from Mexico. Agents said they spotted the four men’s footprints and radioed to other agents who spotted the four getting into a pickup truck in a nearby citrus grove. After stopping the truck, they discovered the driver was in the U.S. under protection of the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty. On Monday, the Border Patrol announced arrests of two other Dreamers in California for separate...

Nearly 80 undocumented immigrants, including 13 unaccompanied children, were found inside a tractor-trailer northeast of Laredo, according to the Border Patrol. Agents working at a checkpoint on U.S. 83 on Friday found the 76 immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala in the trailer of a northbound truck, according to a news release from the Border Patrol. The immigrants were in “good health” according to the news release and the truck’s U.S. citizen driver was arrested... The issue came up again earlier this month when police chief William McManus was criticized for releasing 12 immigrants who had apparently been...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Trump administration announced Monday it was preparing to replace existing vehicle barriers along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico that officials call “an area of high illegal entry.” The notice published in the Federal Register said the area extends around 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. According to the notice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will replace the existing barriers with bollard walls to deter and prevent illegal crossings. Bollard walls are made up of sturdy, vertical posts that are spaced to provide visibility to the...

The agent, whose name was not released, was shot from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River near Brownsville where he was assigned to patrol it by boat, according to the Brownsville Herald. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Marcelino Medina said in the agent suffered a non-lethal injury from a caliber weapon after an assault from the Mexican side. “On Tuesday, December 26, 2017, a Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Riverine Unit sustained a non-life threatening injury from a small caliber weapon resulting from an assault originating from the Mexican Riverbank,” Medina said. “The agent suffered a...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The federal government, in the most complete statistical snapshot of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump, says Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year low while arrests by deportation officers soared. The Border Patrol made 310,531 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 percent from 415,816 a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. Despite the significant decline, arrests increased every month since May — largely families and unaccompanied children. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officers pick up people for deportation away from the border, made 143,470 arrests, an...

An illegal immigrant tried to wrestle a Border Patrol agent’s gun away then was shot and killed by the agent’s partner, the agency said Thursday. Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodolfo Karisch said the two agents were tracking a group of illegal immigrant suspects in southern Arizona and when they moved in to make an arrest, one of the migrants attacked, grabbing one agent’s gun. The other agent then shot the migrant, who died of the wound.

DALLAS (AP) — A U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation into the death of a border patrol agent said Monday that the surviving agent who radioed in for help doesn’t remember what happened. The official, who was briefed on the investigation but is not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Rogelio Martinez was found at the bottom of a 14-foot culvert and that investigators believe he may have fallen. The official said the incident happened after dark in an area is known for drug activity and where agents often look for drugs in...

The circumstances of U.S. Border Patrol agent Rogelio Martinez's death this week remain murkier than the Rio Grande River. Agent Martinez succumbed to critical head injuries early Sunday morning. An unnamed partner, who came to Martinez's aid after he radioed for help from a remote area of the Big Bend sector in Texas, also suffered serious wounds. Whether by deliberate ambush or accident, one of our border enforcers is dead and the other hospitalized. This much is clear: Dumb sensors + depleted forces = deadly border disorder. Agent Martinez had ventured out alone to check on a ground sensor to...

Illegal immigrants appeared to have “ambushed” two U.S. Border Patrol agents near the Texas border with Mexico and bashed their heads with blunt objects -- possibly rocks -- killing one agent and sending another to a hospital in serious condition Sunday, a National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) official told Fox News. Rogelio Martinez, 36, was killed and another agent, who has not been identified, was injured while they were patrolling the Big Bend Sector, leading authorities to scour West Texas for the attackers, officials said. Although few details about the incident have been released, Brandon Judd, the president of the...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a $20,000 reward Monday for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for killing one U.S. Border Patrol agent and seriously wounding another over the weekend. Agent Rogelio Martinez was patrolling in western Texas when he was struck in the head by an object, according to The Associated Press. His partner was also injured, and was taken to the hospital where he was in serious condition.

Exclusive details have emerged on the early morning attack against Border Patrol agents that left one agent dead and another hospitalized in serious condition on November, 19 2017.