Texas border agents encounter boy, 4, among suspected illegal immigrants smuggling marijuana into US

Texas border agents say they encountered a 4-year-old boy early Tuesday morning among a group of suspected illegal immigrants smuggling marijuana into the U.S. 

The value of the seized marijuana was later determined to be worth more than $93,000, according to a press release from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

After midnight Tuesday, Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol (RGV) agents and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers spotted a group of more than a dozen people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Roma, Texas. 

CBP said some people within the group were carrying bundles of what the officers suspected was marijuana. The agents watched as multiple loaded into a Ford Expedition in an area often used for picking up illegal immigrants and drugs. 

The agents approached the vehicle and all occupants fled into the brush, CBP said. Officers found two bundles of marijuana weighing around 116 pounds, valued at more than $93,000. 

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT PREDICTS TITLE 42 REPEAL WILL SEE MORE PEOPLE ENTER STATE IN ONE YEAR THAN LIVE IN ANY OF IT

Thirteen illegal immigrants were apprehended. The driver was not located, CBP said. Among the group apprehended was a four-year-old boy with his mother from Guatemala. The other immigrants were from Mexico, Central America, and the Dominican Republic. 

It wasn’t clear what relationship, if any, the boy and his mother had to the other illegal immigrants. Fox News has reached out to CBP seeking more details. 

The encounter comes as Texas is anticipating a surge of illegal border crossings in anticipation of President Biden rescinding Title 42, a Trump-era health policy used to quickly expel illegal immigrants due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ramped up border security by increasing truck inspections at the border and has begun bussing illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., calling it a message to President Biden. 

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“If he’s not going to come to the border, we’re going to take the border to him,” Abbott said.