We have some news on the ongoing border crisis in both the North and South, so let’s start with some of what’s going on at the southwestern border.
First and foremost, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s buoy barrier across the Rio Grande received a legal challenge on Friday. Texas Kayaking company Epi’s Canoe & Kayak Team sued the governor in order to prevent the installation of these buoys.
Jessie Fuentes, the owner of the company, says that it would impede the company’s ability to give kayak tours, thus causing “irreparable harm”.
Abbott has responded to the news saying, “We will see you in court” and indicated that the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court as he intends to defend Texas and its “constitutional right to secure our border.”
The governor also announced that he was moving forward with the buoy barrier installation on the same day. The barrier is meant to dissuade migrants from making the dangerous trek across the river into the U.S.
In El Paso, officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety have found what could have been a $2 million methamphetamine shipment.
On June 30, Texas DPS stopped a utility trailer for an unsafe lane change and inoperable taillights. The driver, identified as Eduardo Rubio, appeared nervous but allowed the officers to search the vehicle with drug-sniffing dogs. Further inspection revealed hidden bundles of meth in the roof beams of the trailer weighing almost 700 pounds.
Upon arrest, Rubio claimed that the trailer belonged to another man and that he was unaware of the presence of drugs inside. Rubio was simply instructed to pick up a load of onions in New Mexico and take them to Kansas.
Rubio had done similar jobs for this man three or four other times but said this time he suspected something “wasn’t right.”
Rubio faces one charge of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and has a hearing set for this Friday.
Finally, we turn to the northern border; more specifically, Vermont.
According to a Center Square report, federal agents along the busiest sector of the northern border are apprehending more migrants than they have seen in the past seven years combined.
Apprehensions along the Swanton Sector of the border have reached more than 4,600 since the start of Fiscal Year 2023. Back in May, Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia already reported that apprehensions during the first seven months of the fiscal year were greater than the previous four years combined.
Garcia noted that because of the demand for security, “for the first time in over a decade, we are hiring Border Patrol Agents directly to northern border stations.” These new agents are eligible for hiring incentives up to $20,000.