EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Breathing a sigh of relief but keeping their guard up, El Paso city officials on Tuesday kept in place an emergency ordinance to deal with mass migration through the region.

“No major updates. Fortunately for the community, the numbers have been low,” Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Lt. Jorge Rodriguez told the City Council.

Not just El Paso but many other cities along the U.S.-Mexico border had been bracing for an unprecedented spike in migration once Title 42 public health order expulsions ended on May 11. Instead, the opposite happened. The number of daily unauthorized crossings declined substantially.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Tuesday afternoon show the Border Patrol apprehended 98,850 foreign nationals between ports of entry from May 1 to May 11, but only 70,394 from May 12 to May 31 nationwide.

The Department of Homeland Security attributed that to reinstating Title 8 processing that includes loss of future immigration benefits for those found ineligible to remain in the country, and jail time for repeat offenders. DHS now requires foreign nationals on their way to the border to apply for protection in other countries first or procure an appointment online through the CBP One app.

Migrants board vans after waiting along the border wall to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents for immigration and asylum claim processing upon crossing the Rio Grande into the United States on May 11, 2023, in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

The lower numbers mean El Paso has not had to worry about its local shelters being overcrowded or migrants being released on the streets like they were in late November and early December.

“We are seeing a transition from Border Patrol transferring to our (nonprofits). Now, we’re seeing a flip where the bulk of our numbers are coming through the CBP One application and those releases are coming at the ports of entry,” Rodriguez told the council. “It’s a much more orderly method than we’ve seen in the past.”

Rodriguez explained the spike at the start of May but said that El Paso nonprofits are welcoming a manageable 200 migrants per day, since. He said the OEM remains vigilant of migrant trends in the region.

“We always have these planning efforts in the ready position in case we need to expand any of our objectives,” he said, referring to everything from temporary housing and transportation to public health, security and cost-recovery for the city.

The emergency ordinances remain in place.

The council voted 8-0 to extend an ordinance allowing the city to deploy municipal employees to assist at nonprofit shelters and to utilize city resources as needed, for another 30 days, to deal with a humanitarian, economic and public safety emergency. Mayor Oscar Leeser consented to continue a state of disaster as well.

Encinal, Texas  — A mexican man allegedly hid more than $1 million worth of methamphetamine inside his Ford truck. 

Border officials with the Office of Field Operations referred the 63-year-old man who gave his name as Jorge A. Meza for secondary inspection after they arrived at the Encinal Texas checkpoint on I-35. in a white Ford F-150 pickup, from the year 2018

Using non-intrusive imaging equipment (NII), border officers uncovered 95 pounds of meth hidden inside the truck’s floor. The drugs had an estimated value of $1.2 million, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

“This was an excellent discovery of hard narcotics, amid the travel restrictions we are currently operating under,” said , Pete Flores the Executive Assistant Commissioner, of the Field Operations Office (OFO) “This exemplifies OFO’s commitment and continued resolve to prevent drugs from crossing our borders.”

CBP seized the narcotics, the truck, and turned over the man and his family  to Homeland Security Investigations agents, whose investigation continues.

PHARR, Texas (Border Report) — An American man has been arrested for trying to smuggle an undocumented child into South Texas on Father’s Day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday.

The 49-year-old U.S. citizen tried to enter the United States with a young girl via the Pharr International Bridge on Sunday. He presented a birth certificate and said she was his daughter, but CBP officers said the birth certificate, while legitimate, did not belong to her and that she was not a U.S. citizen, nor did she have valid entry documents.

The man was taken into custody on charges of violating federal immigration laws, CBP officials said.

“Our CBP officers thwarted this alleged child smuggling attempt thanks to their experience and excellent interviewing skills,” said Carlos Rodriguez, port director for Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas Ports of Entry. “This apprehension is testament to the notion that violation of immigration law will not be tolerated, carries tangible legal consequences and will be prosecuted to the highest extent allowed by federal law.”

Councilwoman wants U.S. asylum; is scared to return to Mexico

MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — A city councilwoman from the Mexican border town of Reynosa was used by drug cartel operatives who threatened to kill her family if she didn’t cooperate with them, her lawyer told Border Report.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra on Monday said Reynosa Councilwoman Denisse Ahumada-Martinez was being held in his jail in Edinburg, Texas, waiting for officials from neighboring Brooks County to pick her up.

Ahumada-Martinez, 34, was arrested June 10 at the Border Patrol’s checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, which is located in Brooks County, after 92 pounds of cocaine were found concealed in her SUV, according to a federal criminal complaint.

But her U.S. court-appointed lawyer says Ahumada-Martinez was coerced and “under duress” and forced to drive the vehicle from Reynosa to San Antonio under threat of death.

“She had been threatened by individuals in Mexico that had threatened her some time back. And that the only reason she was transporting this vehicle was under threat of death to her and her daughters,” her lawyer, Samuel Reyes, told Border Report on Monday from his office in Mission, Texas.

Reyes says this is the second time that Ahumada-Martinez drove a vehicle from Mexico with questionable contents from Mexico, but he says she did not know there were illegal drugs in the SUV.

“She had no idea what was in the vehicle. It was a threat: ‘Take the vehicle,’ you know, ‘or we will kill you and your kids.'” he said they told her.

On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Juan Alanis dismissed the case during a hearing in Hidalgo County in which he said federal prosecutors had lacked probable cause to arrest her.

But the next day, as she was trying to drive to Reynosa through the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge, Guerra says she was arrested on a warrant from Brooks County on state charges of possession of a controlled substance of more than 400 grams.

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The family of the Uber driver shot by his passenger on U.S. 54 on Friday, June 16, say they knew something was wrong when their loved one didn’t make it home for dinner that night.

“29 years of marriage and he would always worry for us, provide for us, for him and I,” said Ana Maria Piedra, the wife of the Uber driver.

According to the El Paso Police Department, 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia, an Uber driver from El Paso, was shot by his passenger. He remains hospitalized in critical condition.

His family says he is brain dead and they are hoping for a miracle.

Phoebe Copas, 48, from Kentucky, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury. Police said at one point during the drive she thought she was being taken to Mexico.

The shooting happened on U.S. 54 near Loop 375 near the Bridge of the Americas. Police say Piedra had picked up Copas in West El Paso and was driving her to her destination in the Lower Valley.

Police say the investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas’ intended destination.

“He’s not a criminal or a kidnapper like people are streaming on the Internet. It’s so easy to go make your assumptions and just make up scenarios. But that’s not who he is. He’s a hardworking man. He’s the sole provider for Leo and my aunt,” said Didi Lopez, the niece of Piedra.

Lopez says her family has been hearing gossip on the Internet about her uncle, about kidnapping and language barriers.

“I know that people are also saying that there was a language barrier. There was not a language barrier. My uncle spoke English,” Lopez said.

The family of Piedra says he started driving for Uber in May and enjoyed the job and meeting new people.

KTSM 9 News reached out to Uber about the shooting and they sent us the following statement.

“We are horrified by the rider’s actions. Violence is not tolerated on the Uber platform and we banned the rider as soon as we were made aware of what occurred. Our thoughts are with Mr. Garcia and his loved ones, and we are working to get in touch with him and his family. Our Public Safety Team stands at the ready to assist police as needed,” read the statement from an Uber spokesperson.

Copas was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $1 million bond.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help with Piedra’s hospital expenses. Click here to find out more.

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – U.S. and Mexican officials are in talks to rekindle a binational most wanted criminals’ program with billboards and posters of the fugitives.

The last go at the program in 2021 included a confidential telephone tips hotline and the mugs of fugitives later identified as a migrant smuggling kingpin and the head of La Linea drug cartel, among others. U.S. officials have not said how many of the 10 individuals featured back then have been arrested.

The “Se Busca Informacion” binational initiative was conceived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 2018 and resulted in the arrest of six fugitives that year. Se Busca Informacion was expanded to El Paso and Laredo in 2019.

Chihuahua State Investigative Agency (AEI) coordinator Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo and other Mexican police officials last Thursday met with U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection officials in El Paso.

“The purpose of the meeting was to implement the Se Busca Información program to obtain information leading to the capture of top targets,” Zuany’s office said in a statement. “Agreements were reached, and talks are in the advanced stage so that the program can be disseminated shortly.”

In the past, posters have been placed at U.S. ports of entry and along highways near the Mexican border.

Border Report reached out to Border Patrol and CBP for comment and is awaiting a response.