EAGLE PASS, Texas — A large migrant group quietly entered the heart of downtown Eagle Pass on Saturday. Among the more than one hundred migrants were two Special Interest Aliens huddled among 107 others crossing the Rio Grande. A Palestinian man and another migrant man from Iraq were found within the group shortly after fording the river just before daybreak.
The encounter began after a Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol helicopter spotted the group as they made their way across the Rio Grande in the darkness. The group of 109 migrants arrested by responding Border Patrol agents on Saturday included 24 Ecuadorian nationals, 23 Guatemalan nationals, ten Dominican Republic nationals, six migrants from Peru, and smaller numbers from Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, and the two Special Interest aliens from the region of Palestine and Iraq.
The group included 28 unaccompanied migrant children, 48 family unit migrants, 18 single adult males, 15 single adult females, and 28 unaccompanied migrant children.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, in just one weekend this month, more than 500 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass in just a few large groups. According to a source with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the high number of migrants in just four separate groups is not the most alarming news — the number of Special Interest Migrants is what is most concerning. During that weekend, five Iranian citizens, 19 nationals of Egypt, four Afghan nationals, and five Turkish citizens have been arrested crossing the Rio Grande into the small Texas border town.
The number of Special Interest Aliens apprehended in Eagle Pass has recently increased. In one single group of migrants crossing into the small Texas border city recently, 27 Special Interest Aliens were identified and flagged for further interview. A source within CBP, who was not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas that the increase was a new phenomenon for the area.
“On the whole, the Special Interest Aliens have crossed predominately in Arizona and California,” the source explained. “We have seen huge numbers in the past, but they consist of mostly Venezuelan, Cuban, and Central American migrant that choose to surrender in large groups.”
The Special Interest Aliens encountered during October include foreign nationals from the Palestinian region, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Albania. According to a 2019 DHS fact sheet, the term “Significant Interest Alien” is defined as follows:
Generally, an SIA is a non-U.S. person who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or its interests. Often such individuals or groups are employing travel patterns known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism. DHS analysis includes an examination of travel patterns, points of origin, and/or travel segments that are tied to current assessments of national and international threat environments.
Another alarming trend, according to the source, is the number of unaccompanied migrant children appearing at the border in Eagle Pass. In recent weeks, a significant number of unaccompanied migrant children have been sent to the border alone by their families, according to the source. The unaccompanied migrant children will be released to sponsors within the United States to pursue asylum claims by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Of the 1,537,319 migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol in fiscal year 2024, nearly 250,000 migrant apprehensions occurred in the Del Rio Sector of the Border Patrol, which includes Eagle Pass, according to CBP. Nearly 80 percent of all apprehensions within the sector occur within the city of Eagle Pass.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
