NBC 5 Investigates goes inside Texas’ border operations as crossings hit a 15-year low. With cartels raising fees and federal troops increasing, questions grow over Texas’ billion-dollar border spending.
Illegal border crossings have declined as the Trump administration surges resources to the southern border. Migrants caught crossing the border tell Texas state troopers that Mexican cartels are responding by raising their fees for smuggling people across.
NBC 5 Investigates spent two days in mid-February embedded with a team of Texas Department of Public Safety state troopers who work alongside the U.S. Border Patrol, targeting human smuggling.
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WATCH HEREWe watched as one migrant detained by that team told troopers he agreed to pay cartel operatives $18,000 to smuggle him across.
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SIGN UP “His wife is in Houston, and I asked him, how much did you pay the cartel? He said he paid $18,000 to get across, but he paid $12,000 upfront and still owes them $6,000,” said Texas DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez.
Troopers told NBC 5 Investigates that $12,000 is double or triple what the cartels used to charge. They believe the increase is due to both heightened concerns about tighter security at the border and the cartels trying to maintain their profits at a time when the volume of people crossing is down.
U.S. Border Patrol data showed a 76% decline in encounters with migrants along the southern U.S. border in January 2025 compared to January 2024. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on Monday the Border Patrol had only 200 encounters with migrants on the southern U.S. border on Saturday, a new 15-year low for a single day.
As NBC 5 Investigates rode with state troopers near McAllen, we could see the slower pace of traffic firsthand. When troopers responded to reports of people crossing, it was mostly reports of small groups of men on rafts, guided across by cartel smugglers.
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If they reach the U.S. side of the river, the chase is on. NBC 5 Investigates watched troopers and Border Patrol agents pursue one group spotted by a DPS drone, tracking them as they moved north of the river.
“When our troopers made the approach, everybody just kind of scattered,” Olivarez explained.
Other troopers fanned out, trying to locate the rest of the group including the guide, or coyote, paid to bring them across. The troopers involved in the search are members of a Texas DPS “brush team,” which goes deep into the thick vegetation near the river to catch human smugglers and drug traffickers. They use dogs that track human scent and drones mounted with cameras.
NBC 5 Investigates followed as the team scoured the area and located more of the group, some of who were bleeding after falling on a cactus during the chase.
Troopers said that a DPS helicopter and another drone continued to search for the coyote, who appeared to have headed back to the river and got away. The others detained were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
State troopers and Border Patrol agents said they can focus even more attention on smugglers and human traffickers along the river now that they're not responding to waves of asylum seekers, families, and children they used to encounter constantly here.
“We have more support now at the federal level, which does help us. It makes us more efficient,” said Olivarez.
As NBC 5 Investigates rode along the levies near the river, we saw some of the federal troops President Donald Trump has sent to the border. The soldiers seemed to be keeping a low profile, driving Border Patrol vehicles and posted as lookouts. That frees up more Border Patrol agents and state troopers to work deeper in the brush and along smuggling routes north of the river.
“Focusing more on those roadways. Those corridors are used for human and drug trafficking,” said Olivarez.
More federal troops also raise new questions about how long Texas should continue spending billions of state tax dollars on border security. The state has spent $11 billion over the last four years and the legislature is now considering $6 billion more over the next two years.
“Hopefully, now the federal government will take over,” said McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos.
As a mayor of a border town, Villalobos said he is grateful for the state's massive investment in increased enforcement but also hoped Texas taxpayers will soon be able to stop spending billions at the border.
“Hopefully, the state will be relieved of the responsibilities I think they never should have had, but we actually are very fortunate that our governor did do what he did,” said Villalobos.
DPS officials said it is too soon to begin scaling back the state’s border operation.
“One thing I would say is, you know, what price do we put on public safety?” Olivarez said.
The DPS said it has made more than 50,000 criminal arrests since 2021 in the border deployment known as "Operation Lone Star."
Civil Rights groups, including the ACLU, have criticized the operation, saying it largely targets people accused of low-level trespassing and not human smuggling or drug trafficking.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said the arrests help deter illegal crossings, and in a statement to NBC 5 Investigates, the governor's office gave no signs that he is considering winding down the operation and that he was working "closely with the Trump administration to secure the border."
“Under Operation Lone Star, Texas will continue working with our new federal partners to keep Texas, and America, safe,” Abbott's office said.
Along the river, where the pace of illegal crossings has slowed, there's still uncertainty about whether the lower number of illegal crossings will continue or if the cartels and people with a desire to cross have just paused momentarily to see what the state and federal government will do.
“I mean, it's reasonable to believe that, right? It's reasonable to believe that the cartels are always going to adapt to any change. We've seen that over the years with the prior administrations,” said Olivarez.
Troopers said that migrants apprehended recently have told them there are still large groups waiting in Mexico to cross.
In the coming weeks, the legislature will hold committee hearings to discuss spending another $6 billion of state money at the border. The state is also seeking reimbursement from the federal government for the $11 billion spent so far. U.S. Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX 25th District) has introduced a bill that would send that money from the federal government to the state.
