1800 Migrants Apprehended in West Texas Border Sector in Single Day

Officials report that Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 1,800 migrants in a 48-hour period ending Saturday afternoon. The apprehensions made the sector the busiest in the nation on that day.

Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens tweeted photos of agents apprehending large groups of migrants on Saturday, June 18. At the time he tweeted, Del Rio agents had apprehended 1,780 migrants — many in large migrant groups of up to 400.

“The Del Rio Sector accounts for nearly 50% of all large groups apprehended by the US Border Patrol,” Chief Owens said in the tweet.

Human smugglers utilize large groups of migrants to tie up Border Patrol agents and resources in a given area. While large groups are defined as 100 or more migrants crossing in a single incident, Del Rio Sector agents are seeing groups as large as 400 illegally crossing from Mexico into Texas.

From Midnight until about 8 p.m. on Saturday, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended more than 1,100 migrants making it the single busiest sector for that day.

One of the groups, apprehended near Normandy, Texas, approached 500 migrants in size.

In May, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended 44,388 or the 222,656 migrants taken into custody along the southwest border with Mexico, according to the Southwest Land Border Encounters report released last week.