A Texas state trooper is seen wrestling an inflatable raft away from a people smuggler on the Rio Grande before slashing it with a knife, in the latest footage of the migrant crisis at the border.
The cop in the footage can be seen assisting two women and three children stepping into U.S. soil after the migrants were ferried across the river to Roma, Texas, last Thursday.
After helping the last adult ashore, the state police officer tried to seize the inflatable raft from the suspected smuggler before a struggle ensued.
After several attempts to drag the raft towards the shore, the state trooper pulled out what appeared to be a knife and repeatedly drove it into the inflatable vessel.
The upset smuggler shouted obscenities at the officer as he waded back into the water with his damaged vessel and returned to Mexico.
A Texas state troopers slashes a raft used by a suspected human smugglers moments after at least five migrants were illegally ferried over from Mexico via the Rio Grande and made it to Roma, Texas, last Thursday
A state police officer in Roma, Texas, aids a migrant child out of a raft last Thursday
A state trooper from Texas struggles with an alleged human smuggler, who refused to turn over the raft that was used to ferry over at leas five migrants
A second video clip also showed smugglers trying to bring migrants ashore on the river.
The trafficker was recorded while he pushed a raft with at least 12 migrants on board towards the Roma shoreline.
But he suddenly pulled it back after he noticed a cop was waiting for the group to disembark.
‘Dude, you are going to make the children drown?’ the suspect shouted at the officer.
A suspected human smuggler was caught on video last Thursday in Roma, Texas, attempting to bring at least a dozen migrants from Mexico. But upon seeing that there were cops on the Rio Grande’s Texas shoreline, the trafficker returned the migrants to Mexico despite pleas from the cops to allow the children to step off the raft
A Texas state police officer tries to bargain with a human smuggler to allow a group of migrants to deboard from a raft as it neared the Rio Grande’s shoreline in the border city of Roma
A suspected human smuggler keeps his head above the Rio Grande water before he pushed the raft back towards Mexico, thus delaying the migrants illegal entry to the United States
A cop then pleaded with him to ‘let the kids off.’ However, the trafficker ignored the agent’s order and walked the raft back to Mexico.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment.
The incidents are just the latest showing the crisis at the border, which has spiraled since President Biden took office.
Biden overturned many of predecessor Donald Trump’s hardline border policies, including a requirement that asylum seekers remain in Mexico while their cases are processed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released last week showed a 70% in border encounters for March at the southwest border – a 20-year record high.
On Monday, White House aide Tyler Moran told MSNBC that the Biden administration reportedly reached a deal with the governments of Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to place more troops at their borders in an attempt to curtail the massive flow of migrants to the United States.
In March, the Mexican government deployed the National Guard to its southern border with Guatemala before the national police and troops there were able to turn away a migrant caravan that had departed from Honduras.
The smuggler trafficking at least 12 migrants from Mexico to Texas was heard in the video asking the police officer ‘if he was going to make them drown.’ The man proceeded to steer the raft back towards Mexico after noticing that the cops would not stand back
Guatemalan security forces had previously clashed and forced almost 8,000 asylum seekers from Honduras to return to their native country in January, just days before Biden took office.
Border Patrol officers detained 172,331 migrants after stopping 101,028 people in February.
The agency also reported 18,663 unaccompanied children were taken into custody in March. Border officers encountered 9,271 migrant minors who unlawfully entered the United States from Mexico in February.
The alleged smuggler was visibly upset after a Texas state trooper slashed the raft that was used to traffic five migrants from Mexico via the Rio Grande last Thursday
Biden nominates anti-Trump police chief to head border agency
Joe Biden is nominating a Trump critic to lead Customs and Border Protection as the administration secured an agreement with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to put troops at their border to help stop the heavy stream of migrants fleeing to the U.S.
‘We’ve secured agreements for them to put more troops on their own border. Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala have all agreed to do this. That not only is going to prevent the traffickers, and the smugglers, and cartels that take advantage of the kids on their way here, but also to protect those children,’ Domestic Policy Council special assistant for immigration, Tyler Moran, told MSNBC on Monday of the new deals.
Moran did not mention anything about a potential deal with El Salvador, which makes up the Northern Triangle along with Guatemala and Honduras.
Biden is set to nominate Tucson, Arizona chief of police Chris Magnus, a Trump critic, to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
The deal comes after Vice President Kamala Harris was named border czar last month.
Harris has received a slew of criticism for not yet visiting the southern border or any of the North Triangle countries or holding any events related to her new role.
Since then, the White House has backed off on her position. The White House claims Harris’ goal as border czar is to address root causes of why migrants are fleeing Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador en masse.
Along with the new agreements, Biden is also looking to fill out his team addressing the border crisis as he plans to nominate chief of police in Tucson, Arizona, Chris Magnus, to lead the Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), a White House official said Monday.
Magnus is highly critical of Trump’s hard line immigration policies. His appointment requires a Senate confirmation.
In a 2017 op/ed in The New York Times, Magnus criticized Trump and his then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for their stance on immigration.
‘The harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and Mr. Sessions’s reckless policies ignore a basic reality known by most good cops and prosecutors,’ Magnus wrote at the time. ‘If people are afraid of the police, if they fear they may become separated from their families or harshly interrogated based on their immigration status, they won’t report crimes or come forward as witnesses.’
Magnus also refused last year to accept homeland security grants issued to local police departments for border enforcement because Trump did not allow he funds to be used for humanitarian aid.
The administration official also revealed that Biden plans to nominate Ur Jaddou to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
