EL PASO, Texas — Driving along the rugged paths on Mount Cristo Rey, you can see the many trails illegal aliens and smugglers took to get into the United States during the Biden-Harris administration. Border Patrol Agent Orlando Marrero-Rubio told Blaze Media that at that time, days were hectic as overstretched agents tried to keep up with the number of illegal crossings.
Today, agents in the Santa Teresa area of operation in the El Paso Sector are no longer encountering large groups of illegal immigrants giving themselves up and are hardly seeing attempted gotaways. The main reason, they say, is because agents are actually back to patrolling the border and are able to arrest the few people who are trying to sneak in.
It’s a stunning reversal of what the region experienced during the Biden-Harris years. Everything from illegal aliens bum-rushing one of the ports of entry from the Mexican side to attacking U.S. National Guardsmen while storming the border to the streets lined with processed and released migrants due to lack of space, El Paso has been through the wringer.
The lack of illegal activity was of no surprise once President Donald Trump got back into the White House this year and re-enacted his policies that were undone by President Joe Biden. Trump’s return was a day many in border towns were looking forward to, having been on the front lines of the years-long invasion.
“We were very busy in this area. … We were averaging 2,500 to 2,700 apprehensions a day … the whole sector. We are right now seeing an average of 50, the whole sector,” Marrero-Rubio said as we stood near a camera unit on Cristo Rey.
‘[Our] deployment reinforces protecting our nation’s territorial integrity by providing critical detection and monitoring capabilities to support the border security operations.’
Marrero-Rubio said at this time in fiscal year 2024, which started in October 2023, the El Paso Sector already had around 120,000 apprehensions. So far, for this fiscal year 2025, the sector has apprehended only 36,000 illegal aliens. The bulk of the drop-off happened once Trump was in office.
There was concern that if the Trump administration canceled the CBP One app, which gave migrants an appointment to legally enter the United States, migrants would decide to cross the border illegally. That has not materialized. During the time Blaze Media was in El Paso, Border Patrol did not record any gotaways.
While we were driving down Mount Cristo Rey, a call came over the radio that one person was entering the U.S. from the other side of the mountain. Within minutes, agents apprehended the person. Such apprehensions were rare during the border crisis because agents were off the line “babysitting” the give-ups in the field or at the holding centers.
To ensure that Border Patrol has the equipment and personnel needed to secure the border, Trump has sent active-duty military units to the southern border. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that national security cannot exist without border security.
In El Paso, there are now two Stryker vehicles from the U.S. Army that are tasked with surveillance and reporting. More are expected to deploy in other parts of the sector.
“[Our] deployment reinforces protecting our nation’s territorial integrity by providing critical detection and monitoring capabilities to support the border security operations,” Lt. Col. Chad Campbell told reporters near one of the Stryker vehicles. “My battalion will fill critical gaps such as workforce, technology, and logistical support, ultimately allowing DHS and CBP to concentrate on their core mission: to secure our southern border.”
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