by Staff Reporter | Apr 4, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
An American citizen is in critical condition after evading Border Patrol agents while smuggling illegal aliens over the weekend.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detailed the incident in a Tuesday press release. Detection technology observed the unnamed citizen driving a “suspicious” white Nissan Rogue traveling northbound from the border near Parker Canyon Lake around Sonoita around 3 pm on Saturday. The pursuit leading to the crash began after field agents located the car driving on state Route 83.
The vehicle stopped briefly to allow three individuals to exit, where they ran into the surrounding high desert. The vehicle continued northbound to evade Border Patrol agents along the highway, driving further for about four miles before apparently losing control and rolling onto its side. The driver lost consciousness on impact and sustained critical injuries.
Agents arrested two Guatemalan illegal immigrants and one Mexican illegal immigrant following the crash. All face charges for illegal reentry into the country, while the incapacitated driver faces alien smuggling charges.
U.S. citizen involvement in illegal alien smuggling has continued even amid heightened border security and mass deportation efforts under the Trump administration. A key initiative concerned Mexico and Canada committing 20,000 total troops and personnel to the southern and northern borders, respectively, to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Border Patrol also recently teamed up with the Department of Defense to beef up border security.
Field agents apprehended other Americans smuggling seven illegal aliens on Tuesday, also in the Sonoita area. The illegal aliens faced illegal entry and illegal reentry charges.
Two vehicles driven by two American citizens were apprehended in Willcox earlier this week.
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by Matthew Holloway | Mar 10, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Two New Mexico teenagers were arrested near Palominas, Arizona, on charges that they transported three illegal immigrants on March 1st. The illegal immigrants were identified as Mexican nationals by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
CBP’s Tucson Sector announced that as agents patrolled a well-known smuggling route, they observed a person wearing camouflage and began to investigate. While investigating, the agents spotted a black Dodge Ram pickup truck and initiated a traffic stop to perform an immigration inspection on the vehicle.
According to the agents, they discovered the teenagers, a male and female both aged 17, in the front of the vehicle with three older men attempting to conceal their presence in the back seat of the truck. The three men were confirmed to be Mexican nationals who had entered the U.S. illegally, while both the driver and front-passenger were confirmed to be U.S. citizens.
The driver and his female passenger were placed under arrest and transported to the Brian A. Terry Border Patrol Station, and the agents seized the pickup truck. The driver is facing prosecution for human trafficking, a felony under 8 U.S.C 1324 and could face anywhere between one and ten years in prison. The female passenger is not facing charges at this time.
According to the press release from CBP, the three illegal immigrants have all been previously removed from the U.S. and are now facing the reinstatement of their prior removal orders and will serve as material witnesses in the prosecution of the driver.
In a post to X, Chief Patrol Agent (CPA) of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector John R. Modlin wrote, “A U.S. Citizen juvenile was arrested near Palominas, AZ for smuggling 3 illegal aliens. The 17-year-old smuggler faces felony charges of 8 USC 1324 Transporting an Alien Who is Unlawfully Present in the US.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Mar 7, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents hunted down and successfully apprehended three suspected Mexican drug cartel scouts and one foot guide in southern Arizona after a harrowing chase across the lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Authorities have associated the suspects with the Cártel de Sinaloa, a foreign terrorist organization, .
CBP revealed that the first in the series of arrests took place Monday near the town of Maricopa, Arizona. That’s when agents attached to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station encountered and apprehended an illegal immigrant from Mexico who confessed to crossing into the country illegally. A search of the man revealed equipment for communication and observation, commonly used by cartel scouts, in his possession.
The next day, CBP agents northwest of Marana in the Silverbell Mountains spotted and arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico and another from Guatemala following up on reports of suspicious activity in the remote high elevation area frequented by drug and human traffickers. A search of the men also yielded communication and surveillance devices equipped with solar panels and batteries.
Near Pisinemo Village, on the Tohono O’odham Nation later on Tuesday, CBP agents arrested two Mexican nationals, with one of them confessing to be a foot guide for Los Memos, a group associated with Cártel de Sinaloa.
According to CBP, “All subjects were transported to the Casa Grande Border Patrol Station for further processing. In addition to being charged with illegal entry into the country, three of the five men will face criminal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy due to their involvement in smuggling activities.”
In a post to X, Cheif Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin shared footage of Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk helicopter working together to execute the arrest. He wrote, “AZ DPS reported 5 subjects crossing SR86 on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Casa Grande motorcycle units and a Blackhawk made quick work of the sighting, arresting 5 Mexican illegal aliens. 3 are being prosecuted for Re-Entry After Removal and 2 were Expeditiously Removed.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Mar 3, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
A legal resident of the U.S. was brought to the San Luis Port of Entry from Mexico by her neighbor after she suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were able to render lifesaving first aid.
According to CBP, officers encountered the woman who was brought to the point of entry by her neighbor. The woman’s neighbor had spotted her unresponsive in her front yard with a swarm of wasps nearby. She appeared to be suffering a massive allergic reaction from being stung.
The officers began to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the woman immediately upon assessing that she was unresponsive with blued skin and was not breathing. CBP Emergency Medical Technicians rapidly responded to the scene and began to provide additional care.
The Border Patrol EMTs provided lifesaving care to the woman until they were relieved by a San Luis Fire Department ambulance who transported the woman to an area hospital.
Chris Leon, Area Port Director for San Luis, said in a statement, “This lifesaving action by our officers and EMTs shows how CBP protects and serves our communities in a variety of ways.”
“I am extremely proud of our CBP personnel who quickly jumped into action to help and save this woman in need.” Just one day before CBP officers in Naco, AZ, uncovered an attempt to smuggle approximately 159 lbs. of meth hidden in a truck bed during a secondary inspection.
The following day, CBP Airborne and Maritime Operations & BORSTAR operators aided the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in rescuing an injured hunter near Arivaca, AZ, with Jose Muriente, AMO Deputy Director, Tucson Air Branch commenting: “This rescue is a testament to our unmatched aviation precision capabilities. I am incredibly proud of the professionalism our UH-60 crew and BORSTAR team showed today, to save the life of this hunter.”
According to CBP statistics, the Yuma Sector of the border, where San Luis is located, has seen a 72.2% reduction in illegal immigrant encounters since fiscal 2024 with a 33.9% reduction in Unaccompanied Children, a 60.4% reduction in individuals traveling as a family unit, and a 70.2% decrease in single adults.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Feb 18, 2025 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The passage of the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act (H.R. 35) in the U.S. House of Representatives last week was met with drastically opposite reactions from Republicans and Democrats. While Arizona Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ6), who introduced the bill, hailed it as a safeguard for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and law enforcement officers, Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR5) decried the bill as “fear-mongering dressed up as officer safety.” She also compared it to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
In a press release, Ciscomani’s office explained that the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act was so named for an agent of the Border Patrol who was tragically killed during a high-speed pursuit of an illegal immigrant. The bill was drafted in response, making failure to yield a federal offense, and intensifying if the illegal immigrant’s flight from authorities leads to a fatality. Should a person be killed during pursuit, the assailant could serve life in prison.
At the bill’s introduction, Ciscomani said, “Every day, communities across my district experience high-speed car chases that endanger the lives of residents and frontline law enforcement officers and agents. Far too often, these chases end in tragedy, as it did for Agent Raul Gonzalez and countless others. My legislation, fittingly named after Agent Gonzalez, would impose federal penalties on human smugglers and other bad actors that are involved in high-speech chases with federal and local law enforcement. We must send a clear message to anyone seeking to harm our communities that they will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Specifically, the bill establishes that a person fleeing from Border Patrol in a vehicle within 100 miles of the U.S. border would be “imprisoned for a term of not more than 2 years,” and adds that in the event that an officer suffers bodily injury or death resulting from the flight of an assailant from immigration enforcement, the penalties escalate. A bodily injury increases the sentence from five to twenty years. The death of an officer could result in life in prison.
The bill passed the House in a largely bipartisan vote of 264 – 155.
Despite the votes of her fellow Democrats, Congresswoman Bynum held a distinctly different and ahistorical view, comparing the bill to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Essentailly, she compared illegal immigrants living and working in the United States by choice, to Africans subjected to the horrors of chattel slavery in the 19th century.
Bynum told the House, “I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 35. Let’s call this bill what it is: fear mongering dressed up as officer safety. This bill echoes one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.”
She claimed, “Just like that shameful law, H.R. 35 forces authorities and encourages the deputizing of ‘randos’ to do the federal government’s work, punishing them if they refuse. Back then it was hunting down people who dared to seek freedom. Today, it’s forcing local police to become federal enforcers.”
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Ben Petersen rejected Bynum’s statement, telling reporters that the Oregon Democrat is “hellbent on pursuing a dangerous anti-police officer crusade in Congress,” according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Petersen continued, “Bynum’s extremist vote siding with cartel terrorists over Border Patrol puts Oregonians in danger.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
