NewsNation’s Border Correspondent Ali Bradley and Senior National Correspondent Brian Entin give you an exclusive look at the border crisis in America and how the nation’s three borders — southern, northern and aerial — are kept safe. Watch the hour-long special, “Crisis At The Border: On The Frontlines.”
(NewsNation) — Patrolling the United States’ southern border remains a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week job.
That is especially true in areas along the border that are used by smugglers and immigrants who enter the United States illegally to hide from U.S. border agents and other immigration officials.
NewsNation was given the opportunity to ride along with troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety along the Rio Grande Valley. The area has seen an uptick in migrants entering the United States illegally and smugglers who are looking to cash in and move people and illegal drugs across the border into the United States.
Texas DPS says that smuggling networks are adapting faster, and they are making millions in the process. Even as the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally declines, Texas DPS officials are seeing a small surge in smuggling activity in the Rio Grande Valley.
However, as officials try to manage that surge, one agency cannot do it alone.
Texas DPS partners with U.S. Border Patrol agents and members of the Texas National Guard to try and track migrants that immigration officials characterize as “gotaways”.
In most cases, the Texas DPS works to determine if it can file state charges against those they encounter and charge them with smuggling people across the border. In other cases, U.S. Border Patrol officials file federal charges for human smuggling.
The agencies also work together to stop the flow of illegal drugs being moved across the U.S.-Mexico border.
As the effort continues to try to locate and apprehend smugglers, smuggling groups in Mexico are moving in smaller groups, searching for areas that are not being patrolled. Working in conjunction with other agencies like the U.S Border Patrol, Texas DPS relies on tools like drones to monitor what is happening on the ground along the border.
“It’s really a team effort,” Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Guadalupe Cazarez told NewsNation. “The majority of time, our (Border Patrol) agents are processing individuals, and that’s where we come in. We try to cover that gap so that these people do not get across (the border).”