Texas Reclaims Island From Mexican Cartels in Fight to Secure Border

Hondurans walk along the U.S. side of the Rio Grande and past an emptied-out migrant camp after crossing over from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, on May 13, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

In the fight against Mexican cartels, Texas law enforcement recently took control of a dangerous island used by human traffickers.

The Epoch Times spoke to Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who identified Fronton Island as possibly “the most violent part” of the Texas–Mexico border. Fronton Island is an island that belongs to Texas in the Rio Grande River. According to the General Land Office, “Fronton Island has been a hot spot for drug and human trafficking and dangerous cartel activity in the past couple of months.”

Ms. Buckingham further described the island as “a law enforcement-free refuge, one where cartels went for refuge when they needed it.” On Sept. 7, she issued a letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety, authorizing law enforcement access to the state-owned 170-acre island.

On an island where fully automatic weapons were once being fired regularly at night, as two violent cartels fought over its control, she said, “Law enforcement set foot on the island for the first time on Monday [Oct. 2].”

Ms. Buckingham said she can’t speak to the details of the operation but that the island has been reclaimed by an elite force of Texas Rangers. “Clearing the island and taking away [the cartel’s] shelter, they are finding caches of weapons and more that I can’t speak fully about,” she added.

With a Texas flag now planted on the island, Ms. Buckingham said she considers the operation a win against illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human trafficking—but the scope of the problem exceeds this single region.

“Texas is still getting flooded with illegal immigrants,” she said. “We’re seeing millions and millions of folks coming across the border.”

To put this in perspective, she said, “The New York mayor is complaining about thousands of people coming [into his city], while Eagle Pass [in Texas] expects far more than that.” The number of migrants Eagle Pass has to brace for is “the equivalent of 2.7 million people illegally coming to New York every week.” In addition, she said, “these are not just family units, but a whole lot of young, military-aged males.”

“Recent surges of illegal immigrants are setting new records for crossing the border,” she said.

“This is literally an invasion.”

For those actually being processed by Border Patrol to enter the country, she said, their earliest court date to begin a legal process for their entry into the country would be the year 2027. “With a court date years in the future like this, many will just disappear,” she said.

Streaming Across the Border

According to Ms. Buckingham, “nearly everybody who comes across the border has a wristband that indicates which cartel they belong to.”

“Everyone who comes across is owned by somebody, so you’re basically seeing the largest increase in slavery that this world has ever seen,” she said. “Many are now obligated to the drug trade or the human trafficking trade because the cartels are controlling who crosses the border.”

“With enough fentanyl across our border to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, this has to stop,” she said. “Texas is doing everything we possibly can to get this stopped.”

One of the things Texas is doing is “creating a criminal record for the people who come across and break our laws so that they’re easily identifiable,” she said. “Because of [President Joe] Biden’s policies, what we’re seeing right now is a lot of criminals who simply get turned back around to their country to turn around again and walk back across the border.”

“While Texas is fighting on every front and will continue to fight,” she said, “people need to seriously think about who they’re voting for in Congress and for president, because we need people who will enforce policies that stop illegal immigration, and the trafficking of drugs and people into our great country.”

In September alone, Border Patrol encountered a record 269,735 migrants at the border, 218,763 of whom were attempting to illegally enter the country. In fiscal 2023, a record 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended, and more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security didn’t return requests for comment.