Border Report Live: US fights smugglers by land, air and sea
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — The U.S. continues sending resources to the U.S.-Mexico border, and even some out to sea.
The U.S. Coast Guard this week invited reporters to see how they stop other vessels suspected of smuggling migrants.
Due to inclement weather, the dramatic simulation was confined to San Diego Bay but included a high-speed boat chase and sailors boarding the “non-compliant boat” with guns drawn. The captain of the supposed smuggling boat was a dummy named “Oscar,” who was shot with pepper balls.
Border Report correspondent Salvador Rivera watched from another boat, where he learned that the U.S. Coast Guard has “tripled” its resources and personnel to fight maritime crimes, specifically migrant smuggling.
“We’ve essentially tripled the amount of Coast Guard assets on the southern border,” said Peter Nelson, Officer in Charge of Coast Guard Station San Diego. “This has happened in the last two months.”
In those last two months, Border Report has noted a significant increase in reports of Coast Guard interdictions off the coast of San Diego. Below are some recent headlines from Border Report’s news partners in San Diego, FOX 5/KUSI:
- March 11: Coast Guard intercepts boat with 9 migrants off coast of Point Loma
- March 3: Coast Guard intercepts boat with 21 migrants off Point Loma coast
- Feb. 24: U.S. Coast Guard intercepts boat with over a dozen migrants near Encinitas
- Feb. 20: US Coast Guard intercepts 20 migrants off the coast of Point Loma
- Feb. 14: More than $275M worth of cocaine offloaded by US Coast Guard in San Diego
- Feb. 10: 12 migrants intercepted on sail boat off Point Loma coast
- Feb. 5: Coast Guard stops boat carrying 21 people near Point Loma
- Feb. 2: Panga-style boat carrying 16 people intercepted near Mission Bay: USCG
According to figures provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, sailors stopped vessels carrying migrants 561 times in Fiscal Year 2024, and 703 the previous year. So far this fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1, 2024, the Coast Guard has conducted 260 stops.
In this week’s episode of Border Report Live, host Daniel Marin and Border Report correspondents Julian Resendiz and Salvador Rivera examine the movements on the border, as well as the effectiveness of tariffs, with which President Donald Trump threatened Mexico to stop the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S.
On dry land hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean, the reinforcements came in the form of 19-ton, eight-wheeled vehicles best known as Strykers.
A U.S. Army’s M1126 Stryker, one of the first two deployed to the border, was on display atop a hill in Sunland Park, New Mexico, a hot spot for migrant smuggling.
The Strykers have electronic sensors, radar and infrared equipment, and can detect movement miles away and instantly communicate it to U.S. Border Patrol agents or other Army units.
The number M1126 Strykers sent to the border is unknown, but others are on assignment in the Big Bend area East of the El Paso region.
The Trump administration has deployed thousands of troops to the southern border when the number of illegal border crossings has dropped to all-time lows.
According to figures released by the White House on Monday, the Border Patrol encountered 7,181 illegal crossings in March, a 95% decrease from 137,473 in FY 2024, and a 96% decrease from 163,672 in 2023.
“Illegal crossings along the southern border reached another new low last month as President Donald J. Trump makes good on his promise to stop the invasion and secure the homeland,” the White House said.
Across the border from El Paso in Juarez, migrant shelters are near-empty. On Wednesday afternoon, Border Report visited one such refuge on the dusty western edge of Juarez that used to house some 400 people and now only has a handful. Some young migrant men from Central and South America say they tried to secure a CBP One app appointment but couldn’t. They say they’d be willing to stay and wait in Mexico until they’re allowed into the U.S. The much-publicized Mexican mega shelter has seen no more than a few hundred Mexican deportees, who typically come in, eat, get money for a bus ticket and go back home.
Border Report correspondents Julian Resendiz and Salvador Rivera contributed to this report.
