(Texas Scorecard) – Texas troopers encountered hundreds of illegal aliens at the southern border last week, including special-interest aliens, convicts, and gang members.
In a series of posts, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez released information on the encounters at the Texas-Mexico border.
On Monday, troopers encountered a large group of 230 illegal aliens in Eagle Pass, which included 27 special-interest aliens from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, and India. SIA’s are aliens who, based on an analysis of travel patterns, may pose a national security risk to the United States or its interests. These aliens are not necessarily linked to terrorist organizations and are not synonymous with suspected or known terrorists.
In the same group, troopers also arrested 41 illegal aliens for criminal trespass. These 41 were from Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia, & the Dominican Republic. They all were jailed & taken to the Val Verde Processing Center.
On Saturday, law enforcement arrested a formerly deported felon with a criminal history of assault and domestic violence.
Troopers had tracked and located two illegal aliens who fled from law enforcement and trespassed on several properties in Kinney County. They caught two males from Honduras and arrested them for criminal trespass. One of the men—27-year-old Ariel Eliberto Paz Trucious—is a deported felon with a criminal history of assault. Charges against him from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office include domestic violence, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and deadly conduct. He was first deported on April 20, 2024, for conviction or commission of a crime involving moral turpitude.
Last Tuesday, DPS special agents investigated a stash house in Laredo. The agents made contact with a 42-year-old illegal alien from Mexico named Roger Valero. Valero is a confirmed member of the Paisa gang—an independent drug trafficking organization. Further investigation into Valero revealed that he is a deported felon. He was arrested following the encounter.
Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith told Texas Scorecard that with all these illegal aliens crossing, the United States’ national security is under attack.
“The severity of this issue cannot be overstated in the security risk that is created by unvetted special interest aliens entering the United States from countries who wish us harm. DHS does not have access to the criminal databases of these countries to properly vet these individuals or even verify their identity,” said Smith.
“What’s even more disturbing is that most law enforcement on the border agree that 60-70 percent of illegal crossings are never apprehended by Border Patrol and make up only part of the known gotaways. Only those illegal aliens that were detected by Border Patrol and not apprehended are included in the numbers for known gotaways. Those aliens who are never detected are not accounted for in any statistic,” he added. “This essentially results in playing Russian roulette with our national security at stake.”