Texas Border Patrol Sector Apprehends Largest Migrant Group in 2021

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents encountered the largest single migrant group of the year on Tuesday. The agents found 336 who crossed the border illegally from Mexico into Texas.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings tweeted images of agents apprehending a group of 336 migrants. The chief said the group is the largest single migrant group the agents in this sector have encountered so far this fiscal year. Several of the migrants required medical attention due to the heat and dehydration.

Over the weekend, Chief Hastings tweeted that his agents apprehended more than 20,000 migrants during the past week in this single sector.

“It’s the hottest part of the summer and apprehensions are skyrocketing!” the chief wrote.

Hastings’ announcement follows reports from U.S. Customs and Border Protection showing the apprehension of more than 1 million migrants in the first nine months of this fiscal year. The report reveals that 331,661 of the 1,076,242 migrant apprehensions occurred in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.

Migrant apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, the nation’s busiest sector, jumped more than 460 percent over the previous year’s report of 59,083. The largest percentage of apprehensions were of citizens of Honduras (128,675), Guatemala (72,736), Mexico (62,682), and Honduras (43,350) the report states.

Nearly half of the apprehended migrants were classified as single adults (154,602), the report continues. This was followed by 131,380 family units and 45,679 unaccompanied minors.

Human smugglers continue to utilize large migrant groups, defined as 100 or more migrants in a single crossing, to tie up Border Patrol resources. The tactic enables them to move drugs and other high-value migrants across the border and into the U.S. interior. This often leads to high-speed pursuits as smugglers attempt to avoid apprehension.