This is the moment that members of two rival Mexican drug cartels opened fire on each other miles from the US Mexico border.
Footage taken near Ciudad Miguel Aleman shows at least four cars involved in the gunfight using 50. cal machine guns mounted on trucks.
The Mexican border city is directly across from Roma, Texas, in Rio Grande Valley.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Gulf Cartel and Northeast Cartel were the two rival groups involved in the vicious gunfight and were trying to claim a popular smuggling route.
The DPS said that one of the cartels had a thermal imaging drone which was keeping an eye on what was going on from above.
The Gulf Cartel is a criminal syndicate and drug trafficking organization in Mexico which has been active since the 1930s.
Meanwhile, the Northeast Cartel is the dominant drug cartel in in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi.
It comes as the US border continues to be overwhelmed by drugs and human smugglers.
Border state officials are trying to prevent the cartels by providing logistical support.
Footage taken near Ciudad Miguel Aleman shows at least four cars involved in the gunfight using 50. cal machine guns mounted on trucks
Drug cartels were called ‘terrorist organizations’ in September by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican.
And to target the groups, he put new authorities in place. Last week, speaking on Fox News, he told President Biden to also crack down on drug cartels.
He said: ‘A couple of weeks ago, I declared the cartels to be terrorist organizations.
‘If the President did that, it triggers a federal law that would allow him to go into those bank accounts and get those billions of dollars that the cartels are making off of this.’
It is Abbott’s latest plea to Biden for assistance at the border amid an influx of migrants.
The Mexican border city is directly across from Roma, Texas, in Rio Grande Valley. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Gulf Cartel and Northeast Cartel were the two rival groups involved in the vicious gunfight and were trying to claim a popular smuggling route
The ongoing migrant crisis was recently captured on film as a group of Nicaraguan migrants are seen crossing the Rio Grande into Texas unimpeded.
A group of 10 migrants holding onto their belongings wade their way to the midway point of the river between Piedra Negras, Mexico, and Eagle Pass, Texas.
One border patrol boat passes by the group, stops momentarily, and then continues driving away.
‘The border is open, or closed?’ the FOX News cameraman asks in Spanish to a man who helped the group cross.
‘Open,’ the man responds.
‘Border patrol?’ the cameraman follows.
‘No,’ the man says.
The Southwest border experienced 203,597 border encounters in August, totaling just over 2.1 million for the last 12 months.
In September, border patrol officials reported over 376,000 migrant encounters in Eagle Pass since October 2021, which doubled the number from the previous year.
The influx of migrants entering the Texas border town prompted some residents to buy weapons to defend themselves.
The Southwest border experienced 203,597 border encounters in August, totaling just over 2.1 million for the last 12 months. In September, border patrol officials reported over 376,000 migrant encounters in Eagle Pass since October 2021, which doubled the number from the previous year
One Eagle Pass resident said she taught her children to use tasers and other weapons to defend their family business.
‘It’s something that has had to be done because we don’t know what can happen,’ Laura Ramos told FOX News. ‘We don’t know these people or where they come from.’
Another resident said his youngest sister heard a knock on her bedroom window late at night.
‘It’s pretty scary,’ he said. ‘We’re getting used to it already because unfortunately, nothing is really being done.’
The town has three official border crossings on its western edge, though locals say migrants continue to cross the nearby Rio Grande.
According to Eagle Pass Fire Department Chief Manuel Mello, the town performs a body recovery from the river daily, an experience which he described as ‘very traumatic.’
‘There are so many bodies being recovered that the morticians are asking for assistance,’ Mello said. ‘I had never seen so many drownings like we’re seeing right now.’
Mello added that since he joined the fire department 25 years ago, the town would average 12 body recoveries a year. That average has risen to 30 a month.
The Democrat-run city of El Paso in Texas has been bussing migrants north to cities such as Chicago and New York
The federal government has been releasing hundreds of migrants onto the streets of El Paso
Migrants wait to be bused out of El Paso in Texas on September 28, 2022, headed for cities like Chicago and New York
With thousands of migrants being shipped from Texas to New York City by Gov. Greg Abbott, the city has since announced it will distribute 15,000 migrants across its five boroughs.
Migrants have been sent to local hotels – including Times Square-adjacent, $700-a-night Row NYC – and housing shelters.
Queens will house 4,782 of the 14,777 migrants, or 32 percent, according to the Department of Homeless Services.
‘It’s a powder keg in Queens at this point,’ said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
Brooklyn will house the second-most, with 3,906 (26 percent), followed by Manhattan with 2,913 (20 percent), the Bronx with 2,587 (18 percent) and Staten Island with 589 (4 percent).
‘There are several crises. You have a recession coming. We have a lack of affordable housing, rising rents. We have food insecurity. This is a recipe for a social and economic disaster,’ Richards said.
Earlier this week, Mayor Eric Adams warned each borough that ‘every community is going to see asylum-seekers’ and that the city ‘can’t give people a month heads-up’ before migrants are moved into the communities.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has urged the Biden administration to ‘take ownership’ of the migrant crisis
For the first time ever, Customs and Border Patrol reported 2.15 million migrant encounters from October 2021 to August 2022
In speaking about the migrant crisis, Hochul added: ”We want the federal government to see that this is a humanitarian crisis’
Adams declared a state of emergency over the crisis and has said the Big Apple needed $1 billion in federal funding to deal with the influx of people.
Desperate for solutions to the crisis, a frantic Mayor Adams has even suggested renting out cruise ships for temporary housing of the city’s newest residents until their immigration situations are sorted.
The city is currently building a ‘tent city’ on Randall’s Island, which is expected to house 500.
This recent influx of migrants conflates with an ongoing homeless shelter crisis within the city.
New York City reported a 31 percent increase in its homeless shelter population between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, according to data released by the Office of the New York State Comptroller.
‘The surge in the city’s homeless shelter population is straining shelter capacity and is projected to surpass its previous peak of 61,415,’ the data reads.
An estimated 60,008 were counted living in city’s homeless shelters as of September 30.
‘A plan was developed to build new, “purpose-built,” nonprofit-operated shelters; however, many of these were put on hold during the pandemic and in the transition to the Adams administration,’ reads the comptroller’s most recent report.
‘As the number of homeless people has surged in recent months, the city has utilized emergency procurement to open 42 new shelter locations, many of them hotels.’
Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency and said each borough will be bringing in migrants
In response to the sudden surge of migrants, Adams said ‘we can’t give people a month heads-up’ before migrants are moved into communities
Nearly 2,000 asylum seekers from Latin America arrived in New York City over the weekend.
It’s estimated that over 700,000 undocumented immigrants live in the city.
For the first time ever, Customs and Border Patrol reported 2.15 million migrant encounters from October 2021 to August 2022. That figure has never broken two million for an entire fiscal year.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul went after the Biden administration for ‘failing to take ownership’ of the migrant crisis that now has stretched all the way to New York City.
‘We really are looking for a federal response to this – to take ownership of a crisis and we’ll be there to help, but this belongs to the federal government,’ Hochul said.
‘We want the federal government to see that this is a humanitarian crisis.’
El Paso, which sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico, has bused roughly 7,000 migrants to New York City since late August and sent more than 1,800 to Chicago, a city-run effort that far exceeds the more ad-hoc transportation of the past.
Abbott has bused more than 3,000 migrants to New York City and more than 900 to Chicago as part of a high-profile campaign to put a spotlight on the record crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Texas and Arizona combined have also bused over 10,000 migrants to Washington, D.C.
However, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, said the city’s program is ‘completely different’ than the other busing efforts and that they seek to ‘treat people with respect.’
The city’s busing effort has received less attention than Abbott’s program, who is seeking a third term in Nov. 8 midterm elections.
