Human smugglers bragging on social media led border patrol officers to stop a smuggling operation in the Texas desert, according to the local sheriff’s office.
“The posters were bragging on social media,” Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland told the New York Post, referencing a YouTube video showing illegal immigrants running toward a car.
“One of our agents saw it; we reconnoitred the area and he allowed us to reach this area about five miles north of Sanderson.”
the youtube video in question shows the migrants climbing out of some desert bushes in West Texas and then jumping into a pickup truck.
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Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland seen on Fox News. (FoxNews)
Cleveland said Border Patrol agents scoured the exact area of what authorities call a “holding place,” where immigrants make a stop after entering the US illegally, the Post reported.
“This area is their last stop before they get picked up on the highway, which is about a couple of hundred yards to the north,” the sheriff told the newspaper as reporters toured the area. “There’s a really good canopy to provide shade while they wait to be picked up. This area provides great cover and concealment.”
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Cleveland said the migrants will stop and wait at these “holding” locations until a car picks them up and takes them further into the U.S. The sheriff, who oversees a county with a population of about 760, said the migrants Migrant arrests have skyrocketed % in the last two years.
A recent raid of immigrants in Terrell County, Texas that was documented by the sheriff’s office. (Terrell County Sheriff’s Office)
“They put all their trash in one place, cleaned it up — that’s not something we’re used to seeing,” Cleveland said of the “storage location.” “They definitely had success in this area and they didn’t want to be found out by agents or owners with the amount of junk they have.”
The sheriff said a border agent posed as a smuggler and waited in a truck at the scene during the raid. He eventually blew the vehicle’s horn and five unmarked immigrants ran from hiding places toward the car, according to the Post.
“Get on, get on,” the agent told the migrants in Spanish, according to the Post. “Hurry up! Hurry up! Is there more?”
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But instead of being taken further than the US-Mexico border, the passengers were arrested.
The Terrell County Sheriff’s Office documents numerous immigrant arrests on its Facebook page. (Terrell County Sheriff’s Office)
Cleveland recently wrote to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott requesting additional support to help bolster his three-person team and the 50 Border Patrol agents permanently assigned to the area. The state has offered to send Texas cops to the region, but Cleveland’s hands are tied posting a law enforcement officer at the newly discovered “waiting spot” until the cops arrive.
“They will go back and use those places again,” he said. “It’s a numbers game. They have numerous areas that they use and bounce around for a while until they think we’ve forgotten about it, but that’s why we keep checking them out.”
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The Post reported that law enforcement officials had 7,400 illegal encounters with border crossers last year in Terrell County alone, in addition to 8,000 “runaways.”
