Texas: Human Smuggling is out of Control

Considering the recent violence associated with sanctuary cities and illegal immigrants, securing America’s borders looks like it will one of the most important and difficult challenges facing the next US President. The border is anything but secure in Texas, where the city of Laredo is all but overrun with illegal aliens. 

The most open area of the US/Mexico border is near the city of Laredo, Texas where human smugglers have grown far too bold in their efforts to cart family, friends, and strangers into the country. There is no wall between Laredo and Texas. Surveillance is lax, leaving many areas wide open for human smugglers.

Just this week, Border Patrol agents caught and arrested 10 individuals suspected of human smuggling. All 10 have been formally charged in Laredo’s federal court. Their efforts are estimated to have brought in more than 75 illegal aliens. 

The dramatic case of Raymond Segura shows that many human smugglers don’t take the US Borer Patron seriously. Segura was arrested for the third time on July 25th along with two companions just north of Laredo. 

A member of the “Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos” (a prison gang), he boasted that the charges “will not stick” because he has connections with those in jail. He assured officials that the two illegal immigrants captured in his company would not say anything against him because he is “powerful.” 

Other smugglers are a little more inventive: Raul Hernandez was caught with 17 illegal passengers hiding amongst the bales of hay in the flatbed trailer he was pulling with his pickup truck. 

Patrick Stevenson was arrested when found to be towing a trailer with 20 illegal aliens. He told officials that he had agreed to sneak the immigrants in for $5,000.   

This week, Jose Luis Cayetano from Honduras and five companions were arrested as they emerged from the water, having just swum across the Rio Grande. According to Texas fisherman, it is not uncommon to see illegal aliens making their way across the river in the middle of the day.