Fronton: The US Border Patrol agents exchanged gunfire with suspected cartel gunmen near Fronton, Texas, in an incident underscoring increased security measures along the US-Mexican border, according to reports on Monday.
According to Anadolu Agency, the exchange occurred around 2 pm local time near the Rio Grande, where a group of illegal migrants attempted to cross while bullets were fired, officials said, according to Fox News. Neither agents nor the cartel members were injured.
This development comes one week after President Donald Trump began implementing stricter border security policies on his first day in office. Trump recently designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations to escalate enforcement efforts.
The gunfire took place near Fronton Island, unofficially called “Cartel Island” due to its history of criminal activity. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham explained that the state had officially declared the land as Texas territory, enabling law enforcement to patrol the area. ‘Everything that is the center of the Rio Grande and north is, of course, the state of Texas and US territory,’ Buckingham previously told Fox News.
Meanwhile, early data reflects a sharp drop in illegal immigrant encounters following Trump’s inauguration. Between Jan. 20 and Jan. 22, there were 2,523 encounters, significantly lower than the 3,908 recorded during the final three days of the Biden administration, according to Homeland Security Department sources. ‘Enforcing our Nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States,’ Trump had stated in a recent executive order, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to prioritize American interests.