Border Patrol officials in southern Arizona renewed a partnership with Mexican immigration officials by adding a provision increasing prosecutorial efforts against human smuggling.
“Operation Against Smugglers Initiative on Safety and Security” (OASISS) is designed to increase prosecution of cartel-connected human smugglers operating from inside Mexico. Officials on both sides of the border implemented the program in 2005. It enables Mexican courts to prosecute brutal human smugglers utilizing information obtained by Border Patrol agents interviewing captured illegal aliens in the U.S., according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
Officials put the OASISS program on hold during the past year because of a lack of procedures in the Mexican federal court system. However, in order to try and stem the continued endangerment of these migrants, largely women and minors from Central America, the Mexican government adopted a new bi-national agreement to resume the OASISS prosecutions.
Border Patrol officials stated that they submitted 143 suspects to the Mexican government during the last fiscal year that ended on September 30.
As the summer temperatures heat up along the southwestern border, migrants being smuggled in from Mexico are increasingly in danger. Last week, Border Patrol agents in South Texas discovered the dead bodies of three illegal aliens in a single day, Breitbart Texas reported. The two adult males and one adult female all appear to have died from heat exhaustion and dehydration after being abandoned by their callous human smugglers.
Border Patrol officials are also reporting increased rescues of migrants abandoned, but still alive, in recent weeks. On Thursday, Border Patrol agents in the Laredo Sector rescued a woman near the town of El Cenizo, Texas, after her smugglers abandoned her and left her to die in the heat. Agents found the young woman’s unconscious body while searching for the group she was traveling with. A Border Patrol agent trained as an Emergency Medical Technician provided life-saving assistance to the woman, saving her life.
Earlier that week, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers rescued a group of illegal aliens locked inside the cargo area of a U-Haul truck on a day where outside temperatures soared to more than 100 degrees. At least one of the migrants was near death at the time of the discovery.
The move to increase human smuggling prosecutions in Mexico follows a commitment from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to increase the prosecution of human smugglers in the U.S. AG Sessions announced plans to increase the number of prosecutions in a speech to Border Patrol agents and CBP officers during a speech in southern Arizona. In a memo dated April 11, Sessions directed prosecutors to push for charges against anyone who assaults, resists, or impedes agents engaging in the performance of their official duties, Breitbart Texas reported.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
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