U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a weather-related warning to foreign nationals against attempting to illegally enter the United States.
“As the summer heats up, the already dangerous attempts to enter the U.S. illegally worsen. Do not risk your life,” the CBP said in a June 27 post on X.
CBP shared a post from Justin De La Torre, chief patrol agent of Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, which said, “Illegally crossing San Diego’s Otay Mountain is dangerous with rough terrain and extreme weather. Two Mexican Nationals were caught by Chula Vista Border Patrol. Our agents patrol day and night; the border is secure. Don’t risk your life or money trusting smugglers.”
The ongoing summer season in the United States is expected to last until late September. The National Weather Service predicts Thursday’s temperatures in the southern United States to mostly be in a range of 90–100 degrees Fahrenheit.
CBP’s warning to foreign nationals comes as six illegal immigrants were found dead in May inside a sweltering railroad boxcar in Laredo, Texas.
Preliminary medical reports on the individuals, from Mexico and Honduras, determined that all six of them had died due to severe heat stroke, according to Laredo Mayor Victor Trevino.
“They did not pass away in our city but were discovered here after hours of suffering and eventually dying several hours before arriving,” Trevino said at a news conference.
Out of the six individuals, one was a 14-year-old boy, another was a woman, while the remaining were men. Authorities found no survivors with them.
In January 2025, the CBP said that a migrant died from heat-related injuries after crossing illegally into the United States. When the man was taken into custody, authorities noticed that he was hot to the touch and drifting in and out of consciousness. He eventually succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
Since 2014, there have been a total of 2,980 recorded deaths of people who tried to cross the border into the United States from Mexico, according to data from the Missing Migrants Project, run by the International Organization for Migration.
In a Feb. 20 update, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that human smuggling is a multibillion-dollar industry for transnational criminal groups that take advantage of vulnerable people.
“The driving purpose for human smugglers to commit this crime is money. They have no concern for humanity and are simply looking to make a profit,” the agency said.
Crackdown on Smugglers
On June 15, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that a Mexican national was sentenced to 87 months in prison for being part of a smuggling group that operated for many years at America’s border with Mexico.More recently, on June 29, the DOJ announced that an extradited Mexican national pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle thousands of foreigners from various nations into the United States.
This investigation was supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha, a Justice Department effort to combat smuggling and trafficking activities carried out by cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
The task force’s work has led to the arrests of more than 464 domestic and international leaders, organizers, and facilitators of human smuggling and trafficking. This has resulted in more than 414 convictions and more than 360 jail sentences.
President Donald Trump recently applauded the achievement, according to a video shared in a June 24 X post from the official White House account.
“We’re removing murderers, gang members, drug dealers, and dangerous criminals by the thousands,” Trump said.
“I want to say a very special thanks to all of the men and women who have helped liberate America from this scourge—the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol.
“We inherited the worst, most dangerous, most wide open, and insecure border in history. And we have quickly turned it into the strongest, most secure border in the history of our country.”
