Mexican cartels fire at Border Patrol agents as Trump ramps up enforcement: officials

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U.S. Border Patrol agents exchanged gunfire with suspected cartel members near the U.S.-Mexican border on Monday, as the U.S. government’s response against criminal migrants continues to intensify.

The gunfire exchange – which happened exactly one week after President Donald Trump began ramping up border security on his first day in office – occurred at around 2 p.m. local time near Fronton, Texas.

A group of illegal aliens was attempting to cross the Rio Grande while bullets were fired, but did not make it across. Neither the Border Patrol agents nor the suspected cartel members were hit. 

President Trump recently designated Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. 

The area where the gunfire exchange took place is near Fronton Island, also unofficially known as “Cartel Island” due to the criminal activity there. In an interview with Fox News Digital in 2023, Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said that she declared the land as Texas territory – even though it had not officially been before – to grant law enforcement the right to patrol there.

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A US Border Patrol officer deploys on the Rio Grande on a patrol of the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

“One of the things that the General Land Office does is determine the center of a waterway,” Buckingham said at the time. “Everything that is the center of the Rio Grande and north, of course, the state of Texas and the United States territory.”

“The land just hadn’t been accurately declared as it was forming in the river. That’s why we had to step in and officially declare it Texas territory.”

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Wilderness surrounds the banks of the Rio Grande River, which is the border between the United States and Mexico in this part of rural Texas, on December 1, 2023 in Fronton, Starr County, Texas. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Last week, a Fox News Digital exclusive found that a sharp drop in illegal immigrant encounters occurred in the first days of the Trump administration – 35% lower than the final three days of the Biden administration.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources said that there were 1,288 encounters nationwide on Jan. 17, then 1,266 on Jan. 18 and 1,354 on Jan. 19. The 3,908 encounters in the last few days of the Biden administration countered the 2,523 encounters in the first three days of the Trump administration: 1,073; 736; and 714 from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22, respectively.

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The banks of the Rio Grande/Bravo River on the border of El Paso, Texas, United States with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on January 20, 2025.  (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

“Enforcing our Nation’s immigration laws is critically important to the national security and public safety of the United States,” Trump said in an executive order last week. “The American people deserve a Federal Government that puts their interests first and a Government that understands its sacred obligation to prioritize the safety, security, and financial and economic well-being of Americans.”

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Andrea Margolis is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Readers can send story tips to andrea.margolis@fox.com.