Hundreds of migrants hitch train ride to El Paso border — Texas prepares for another potential riot

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Hundreds of migrants have hitched a ride on a train bound for the El Paso-Juarez border, with the first group arriving earlier this week, according to Border Report.

The train, referred to as "La Bestia," or "the Beast," is carrying an unknown number of foreign nationals hoping to seek asylum in the United States. It is also referred to as the "Death Train," because migrants risk their lives riding on top of and clinging to the side of the cargo cars.

The New York Post noted that the Mexican government has recently stopped cracking down on the train rides.

Some of the migrants who just arrived in Juarez plan to head to the port of entry in El Paso and make asylum claims, while others intend to enter the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande River. Individuals wishing to claim asylum are supposed to schedule an appointment with the Department of Homeland Security through the CBP One app and then check in at a port of entry. However, many have chosen to avoid designated entry points and cross over illegally.

An 18-year-old Venezuelan national told Border Report, "I am traveling by myself and they're waiting for me in Florida."

"I left (Venezuela) on February 5 and I stayed in Mexico some time and the (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) appointment never came. […] I will go to the river and see what happens," he stated.

CBP agent Orlando Marrero-Rubio told Border Report, "Anybody that comes into our country between ports of entry, they're doing it in an illegal way, regardless of your immigration status. Even for United States citizens it's completely illegal to make an entry between ports of entry."

Reports of the large group of migrants riding on the train began surfacing on Tuesday, a law enforcement official told the news outlet.

In response to the incoming migrants, the Texas National Guard was issued nonlethal pepper ball ammunition, a National Guard source told the Post. In March and April, large groups of illegal migrants stormed the border, destroying barriers and pushing past law enforcement authorities. The illegal aliens outnumbered the National Guardsmen.

The Post reported that one migrant attempted to grab a guardsman's firearm during the March incident. Authorities confiscated knives and shanks from some of the individuals involved in the rush.

“These people were willing to assault military,” a source told the Post. “They were willing to assault law enforcement. They have complete disregard for our laws.”

Since then, additional troops have been deployed, and fencing has been reinforced.

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Cartel leaves 8 bodies along migrant smuggling route with chilling warning to rival gang: ‘Chihuahua has an owner’

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The bodies of eight unidentified males were recently discovered near El Paso along a notorious and heavily trafficked illegal migrant smuggling route, the El Paso Times reported.

The victims were left in a field alongside the Pan-American Highway, which connects Chihuahua City to Juárez. Authorities discovered the gruesome scene around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the media outlet.

Police reported that the eight victims showed signs of torture, including multiple stab and gunshot wounds. Some of the victims also showed signs of asphyxia. According to authorities, no bullet casings were found at the scene.

A Juárez municipal news statement explained that the cartel members who perpetrated the murders nailed a chilling message to one of the bodies with a knife that read, “Chihuahua tiene dueño,” which translates to “Chihuahua has an owner.” The note aimed to serve as a warning to a rival human smuggling gang battling for control of the trafficking route.

Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations, told the New York Post that the area where the bodies were discovered is “one of the most coveted trafficking corridors from Mexico that exist.”

“Just a few years ago, the cartels never dealt with humans, not human trafficking or human smuggling. You had human trafficking organizations and human smuggling organizations that’s all they did, and the cartels did the drugs and other things,” Avila stated. “But that’s what has completely changed. The cartels saw the amount of potential money to be made with the human [smuggling], and they’ve now taken over.”

“These human trafficking organizations and human smuggling organizations now have been incorporated and answer to the cartels, and that’s where a lot of the struggle is because, yes, the cartels do want that money to be paid to them,” he continued.

Authorities found two more victims inside a vehicle located up the road. Police believe the separate discoveries are connected, but it is unclear whether the two victims were killed by a rival gang or by their own cartel.

State Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya told Border Report, “We found a burned vehicle [18 miles] to the north that could be related to this event. They used it to move the bodies.”

“We have a precedent of homicides committed in that area directly related to human trafficking,” he added.

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Migrant caravan of 2,000 heads toward El Paso

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A massive migrant caravan of at least 2,000 individuals led by Mexican activists is heading toward El Paso, Texas, and will arrive at the southern border within days, the New York Post reported.

The first group from the “Way of the Cross” caravan recently reached Chihuahua City, Mexico, according to KTRH. The news outlet noted that the migrants are being assisted by churches in Mexico.

A video posted on social media showed the wave of migrants chanting, “A la frontera,” which means, “To the border.” The group declared, “We are not criminals, we are international workers.”

\ud83d\udea8BREAKING NEWS: New criminal alien caravan organized by Catholic Church \u201cViacrucis Migrante\u201d makes its way to the United States. Each one of them will break into our country and Joe Biden will give them free work permits, free housing, education, healthcare and legal services.
— (@)

The caravan was reportedly formed to ensure the security of migrants seeking to travel to the border and enter the United States. The activists argued that, without the safety of the caravan, the migrants are being exploited by criminal organizations.

“Right now, there is a clear persecution of pro-migrant activists,” activist Luis Villagran stated in a video captured by Real America’s Voice and posted on social media. “They haven’t been able to control this massive migrant flow.”

“The only one that benefits out of human misery, it is the organized crime,” he continued, according to RAV’s translation.

The activist claimed that the migrants “do not have another options.”

“Their only option is to walk in a caravan or go in the back of a tractor trailer to possibly die. Where we have seen, in the past year 2023, more than 400 migrants have disappeared in their journeys to try to get to the United States of America,” the activist added.

\ud83d\udea8BREAKING: @Oscarelblue captures footage of a CARAVAN OF 3000 Migrants leaving the south of Mexico with direction to the USA!
— (@)

It is unclear whether they all plan to enter the U.S. at the El Paso border or if they will separate into smaller groups and cross at several ports of entry.

Border Report stated that churches near the southern border are preparing for the surge of new arrivals.

Rev. Francisco Bueno Guillen, director of Casa del Migrante shelter in Juarez, said, “We are in contact with people and personnel in migrant shelters in south Mexico. They say many people have come into the country recently and are being joined by others already there. And yes, they are coming to Juarez.”

Guillen has been in communication with other church officials to coordinate shelter space for those in the caravan.

“We are a single church. We are not isolated, we work together. They (El Paso) also have places to shelter migrants, they assist us,” he stated.

El Paso Catholic Diocese Bishop Mark J. Seitz told Border Report, “We continue to marshal all available resources and be aware of the trends.”

“El Paso has shown itself to be very able to gear up when the surge comes and provide a safe and orderly way for those who have been permitted to come in to find a secure situation and continue on their path.,” Seitz added.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas responded to the news about the en-route migrant caravan.

“Our border has been overrun for over three years. This is just the latest example of what Joe Biden has normalized,” he wrote in a post on X.

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Female alleged gangster wanted in connection with gruesome human sacrifices in Mexico arrested in Texas

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A woman wanted in connection with several brutal, gang-related murders in Mexico was recently arrested inside the United States.

On February 15, the combined efforts of the FBI Safe Streets Gang Task Force, the El Paso Police Gang Unit, County Sheriff's Narcotics Division, and Border Patrol resulted in victory when agents arrested Mexican fugitive Michelle Angelica Pineda, sometimes referred to as La Chely, in a motel in eastern El Paso, Texas. American and Mexican law enforcement officials believe that Pineda, a Mexican national, crossed the U.S. border illegally as part of a drug-trafficking ring perpetrated by the violent street gang Artistas Asesinos, or Artist Assassins.

Inside the motel room where Pineda was arrested, investigators reportedly found a cache of weapons — guns, knives, and machetes — as well as drugs like Xanax, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl. Pineda was immediately transported across the border and placed in the care of Chihuahua state officials. She now sits in an unidentified Mexican jail.

Though her alleged leadership role among the Artistas Asesinos may sound bad enough, it's hardly the worst accusation against her. She and her fellow gang members also supposedly murdered five people, dismembered their bodies, and then offered some of their body parts to a Mexican folk saint known as Santa Muerte, or Holy Death.

"Pineda was known for her extreme brutality such as dismembering bodies, removing hearts, and placing the hearts in front of 'Santa Muerte' altars and statutes," the FBI said in a statement.

"Today’s deportation highlights the swift action of our agents and our significant partnerships by successfully taking a violent assassin off our streets and putting her back into the hands of Mexican law enforcement to be tried for her crimes," a statement from FBI El Paso Special Agent John Morales read in part.

Pineda is also suspected of participating in 20 other dismemberment murders in Juarez, which is just across the border from El Paso. One Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de Juárez, reported that her alleged history of violence dates all the way back to when she was just 13 years old, describing her as a "young woman who grew up surrounded by violence."

Many Catholic leaders in the U.S. and Mexico have denounced Santa Muerte, a skeletal figure often associated with drug cartels, as, at best, "spiritually dangerous," and, at worst, demonic. Prayers to Santa Muerte "should be completely avoided," Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, said in 2017. "It is a perversion of devotion to the saints."

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Biden DHS Blames Migrant Crisis On Cartel ‘Disinformation’ That The Border Is ‘Open’

Most immigrants do not spend fortunes on risky journeys based on disinformation from criminal strangers.