Texas police officers say that a Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio Sector shot a woman, a suspected human smugger, near the Texasx-Mexico border. That shooting, which took place at about 8 am on Saturday in Maverick County, Texas, followed the suspected human smuggler attempted to ram the Border Patrol agent with her vehicle.
Breitbart, reporting on the hair-raising incident, said that the situation began when “[a]n Eagle Pass North Station agent initiated a traffic stop on a suspected human smuggler.” The agent then approached the woman and her vehicle, attempting to examine the car before letting it through the border checkpoint. Instead of engaging with the Border Patrol agent, the woman drove the vehicle forward and attempted to strike the agent with it.
The agent then drew his sidearm and opened fire. He fired until the threat was stopped, and Breitbart reports that “Police say the agent’s shots struck the suspected human smuggler twice. The female was taken to a local hospital where she awaits transfer to a San Antonio medical facility.” So threat terminated and mission accomplished, and the agent was not injured during the brief fight.
After the shooting, agents investigated the vehicle and found seven individuals inside it. The shot woman had been attempting to smuggle them into the country. Border Patrol agents took those seven individuals into custody.
While the Border Patrol agent escaped unscathed this time, that is sadly not always the case. In early January, for example, a Border Patrol agent was shot when engaging a vehicle used for human trafficking. Fortunately the officer was wearing body armor and so survived. The New York Post, reporting on that incident at the time, said:
A US Border patrol agent was shot in New Mexico on Thursday by a suspect inside a car that officials believe was being used for human smuggling.
The officer, assigned to the Lordsburg station, was shot in the chest around 11:30 a.m. by someone in a vehicle on State Highway 46, US Customs and Border Protection said in a press release.
The agent, who returned fire as the vehicle sped away, was wearing body armor at the time and survived, officials said.
Soon after the shooting, the vehicle rolled over in a crash a few miles up the road, according to CBP.
Six people inside of the vehicle were arrested, including two who were airlifted to a trauma center in El Paso, Texas
And shootings are far from the only costs of the illegal immigration crisis, though they are some of the most tragic. The economic costs are quite substantial as well, as the Heritage Foundation noted in a recent report, claiming:
Annually, illegal immigration now costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year. For instance, in states far away from the southern border like Illinois, that cost was $4.59 billion in 2022. That’s $930 per household. Every year.
The far-reaching effects of the influx through our southern border are clear. Our communities bear the costs of illegal immigration caused by the Biden administration’s anti-enforcement and open border policies.
Border communities have long been overwhelmed under these policies. The crisis now costs California $21.76 billion and Texas $8.88 billion annually in education, health care, law enforcement and criminal justice system costs, welfare expenditures, and more. Border states are often the subject of shocking reports of epidemics of violent attacks, taxpayers footing the bill for illegal aliens’ health care costs, and increased property destruction.
However, there is more to the story. Considering the droves of illegal aliens the government is settling throughout the country and the sheer number already in the interior of the U.S.—an estimated 15.5 million in 2021—let’s consider a few examples of the specific, ever-increasing costs to communities and states all across the nation.
At a rate of $65,116 per alien, New York City Mayor Eric Adams estimates his city will need to spend $2.8 billion in the next fiscal year to deal with the rapid influx.
In 2023, New Jersey will spend $15 million just to provide health care benefits to illegal alien children.
As of September 2022, Operation Lone Star—a statewide effort by Texas to decrease illegal crossings and crack down on human and drug trafficking—had cost Texas over $4 billion. That averages about $2.5 million per week.
As of July 2022, Colorado was on track to spend $12 million per year in state and local government benefits, professional licenses, and business permits for illegal aliens.
In March 2022, Oregon passed legislation establishing the Universal Representation Fund, providing $15 million in “free” legal services and representation for illegal aliens, primarily those facing deportation.
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