Migrant Jumps Over Texas Border Wall’s Razor Wire in Video

Video has been posted on social media showing a suspected illegal migrant climbing over a wall made out of shipping containers and razor wire on the Texas-Mexico border to arrive in the U.S. before being arrested.

The incident took place on Monday near Eagle’s Pass, previously a major crossing point for illegal immigration, which has since been heavily fortified by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Tensions surged between Texan authorities and the Biden administration on January 22 when the Supreme Court ruled federal agents can remove razor wire placed along the border on Abbott’s orders.

The judgment sparked a furious response from Abbott, who said his state was facing an “invasion” and invoked its “constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.” A joint letter backing the Texas governor’s position was signed by 25 other Republican governors, while Donald Trump urged other GOP-controlled states to send National Guard troops to Texas in a show of support.

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, his own bid to secure the Texas-Mexico border, back in 2021. Under its auspices, thousands of National Guard troops and law enforcement personnel have been sent to the southern border. There, they erected razor wire and other physical barriers, including floating buoys in the Rio Grande, which they were later ordered to remove by a federal court.

A 57-second clip of the incident, which appears to have been filed by a drone operating along the Rio Grande River, was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by independent journalist Efraín González. He wrote: “Young migrant jumps over barbed wire and is arrested by DPS [Texas Department of Public Safety] in Eagle Pass this afternoon. This is how the few migrants who arrive at the Piedras Negras border are being detained since federal operations began in Mexico at the end of December.”

In the video, a young male wearing a backpack is seen clambering onto a shipping container, through a thick batch of razor wire. This had been placed along the border as part of a physical barrier to deter migrant crossings.

The shipping container wall is topped with men in military-style camouflage, who appear to be National Guard soldiers, though they don’t attempt to impede the migrant’s arrival. Once the man has crossed the barrier, he is seen being arrested and taken into custody by law enforcement.

A still photo of the migrants arrival was also shared on X by Auden B. Cabello, a self-styled independent journalist and colleague of González. He said he spent Monday in the Mexican town of Piedras Negras across the Rio Grande from Eagle’s Pass.

Cabello’s image was reposted on X by Lieutenant Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety. He added a photo of the migrant wearing a white cartoon-decorated T-shirt, taken shortly after he made the border crossing.

Olivarez added: “Texas Department of Public Service troopers arrested the illegal immigrant from Guatemala for criminal trespass after he climbed a shipping container & breached through razor wire. He will be jailed awaiting state court proceedings. #OperationLoneStar.”

In an update released by Abbott on February 23, the Texas governor said 501,300 suspected illegal immigrants have been detained in his state since Operation Lone Star was launched in 2021, with 467 million “lethal doses” of fentanyl seized by authorities.

The number of illegal crossings into the U.S. declined by 42 percent from 301,983 in December to 176,205 in January, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.