I-Team: Uncovering the Truth at the Border – Part 1
President Trump is making immigration enforcement and border security top priorities in the early days of his second term in office.
Riverside County was home to an estimated 132,000 unauthorized residents as of 2019 according to the Immigration Policy Institute.
News Channel 3 traveled to the border to get answers on what's happening on both sides.
We started with a tour with the US Border Patrol, El Centro Sector.
Agent James Lee was our guide and explained that they are doing the same things they were doing during the Biden administration.
He showed us a placard to commemorate the first installation of the new border barrier that started during 2018, during President Trump's first term.
And explained how fewer migrants are attempting to use the New River as a way to enter the United States, saying it's one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country.
The tour takes us west, out of town, to the end of the barrier.
It ends at that point, where a mountain makes the terrain extremely difficult to cross.
Agent Lee shared the heartbreaking story about a woman who passed away on the Mexican side of the fence. Agents were able to rescue her 10-year-old daughter, who was able to climb up the mountain to the end of the barrier to be rescued on the U.S. side.
We interviewed El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent, Gregory Bovino.
He told us, "Not a lot's changed in terms of our operations here in the Premier Sector."
The biggest difference is fewer people are trying to cross and apprehensions are down.
In January '25, they were down 51.6% from January '24.
Chief Bovino says, "Whether we had 10 apprehensions a day a month and a half ago, and we've got one apprehension today. It's still all low, and it's always game on. It's just game on, in a different way."
Recently, while President Biden was still in office, the El Centro Sector carried out "Operation Return to Sender" in the Bakersfield area, which led to 78 arrests.
"We had specific targets, as well as a very robust highway team to look at those transnational criminal threats that we knew were headed into and around Bakersfield, California," Bovino explains.
Overall, new checkpoints like the ones that have been established on each side of the Salton Sea for decades aren't expected anytime soon.
At the same time, the border patrol won't be looking the other way should they have reason to talk with anyone during an operation or a mutual aid.
"If you're an illegal alien and the border patrol makes contact with you, you're coming with us," Bovino says.
Coming up February 27th on News Channel 3 at 6:00 pm, see part two of our I-Team series, "Uncovering the Truth at the Border."
See what we found on the southern side of the border and how the new administration's policies are impacting people in Mexicali, Mexico including the presence of hundreds of military personnel now on scene since February 8th in response to President Trump's tariff threats against Mexico.
