Staff Reports
Texas state troopers found stash homes near the border holding scores of people and apprehended suspected human smugglers. After being stopped on I-35, two suspects attempted to flee arrest, which was thwarted by the troopers. Authorities discovered 15 Mexican nationals hiding in the toolboxes and rear cab of their car. The people who had been arrested were turned over to the Border Patrol, and the suspects were accused of smuggling people and avoiding arrest.
https://twitter.com/BoSnerdley/status/1794739658657776019
Furthermore, Goliad Sheriff Roy Boyd's Operation Lone Star task team has been successful in stopping human smugglers who are heading from Laredo to Houston. Additionally, in a stash home in Webb County, DPS officials found 29 illegal foreign immigrants, one of whom was a member of the Tango Blast Gang. Every person within the stash house was directed to the Border Patrol.
Texas recently held extraordinary sessions and approved laws to strengthen border security. Governor Greg Abbott underlined the gravity of the matter and voiced alarm over the notable rise in Texas's arrests for human smuggling from 370 in 2017 to 7,700 in 2023. As a result, the new regulations impose harsher punishments for running stash homes and smuggling people, including a mandatory five-year jail sentence for running a stash house and a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence for smuggling. The legislation also facilitate the continuation of Operation Lone Star, which since its start in April 2021 has resulted in the arrest of over 43,100 criminal suspects and over 511,600 unlawful alien nationals.
