Northern Mexico State Steps Up to Turn Back U.S.-Bound Migrants

Elements of the giant migrant caravan heading through Mexico have collided with police roadblocks in the northern state of Coahuila, which is halting buses, detaining transients and deporting some of them.

“Operation Mirror,” a joint security pact between four Mexican border states and Texas, may be the best chance to stanch the flow of illegal aliens as the Biden administration institutes more policies that hamstring U.S. enforcement.

Stepped-up efforts at the state level fly in the face of a new memorandum from Tony L. Barker, acting chief of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Law Enforcement Directorate. According to a copy obtained by Breitbart News, officers have been advised not to arrest migrants near waterways, walls, canals or other barriers.

Ongoing catch-and-release protocols have flashed a green light for illegal border crossers. The 239,416 migrant encounters logged in May set a record, for the second straight month. More than 95,000 were released into the United States in May, pushing the total admitted on Joe Biden’s watch to more than 1 million.

“In recent weeks, a vast caravan formed in deep southern Mexico comprised of some 15,000 mostly Venezuelans, Cubans, Somalis and other extra-continental migrants,” says Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Though Mexico’s central government issued thousands of humanitarian travel permits, Mexican media reported that the northern state of Coahuila is not honoring those documents, in defiance of Mexico City.

State police are blocking northbound buses at stations in the capital of Saltillo, and elsewhere. Migrants are taken off trucks and vans at checkpoints on all roads leading to border towns that lie across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass and Del Rio.

Reminding the governors of their security agreements, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to re-impose stringent vehicle checks on states that renege. Earlier this year, the Texas inspections bottled up commercial traffic for miles, and prompted four Mexican governors to sign the border-enforcement accords.

Will Abbott’s tough talk work? Will northern Mexican states hold the line? Stay tuned, but don’t count on Team Biden for help.