Coast Guard crews patrol the Rio Grande near Mission, Texas, on Oct. 18, 2025. The service declined to say how many troops or boats are now patrolling the river in a mission dubbed Operation River Wall. (U.S. Coast Guard)
The Coast Guard assisted in the arrest of 20 people attempting to cross the Rio Grande into the United States after two weeks of its new mission to patrol the river in south Texas.
“The threat is evolving. It’s using different tactics and different procedures; they are bringing in new technologies that make it a little bit more challenging for law enforcement to apprehend. That’s the part that is changing and why we are surging in here,” Capt. Christopher Cumberland, commander of Coast Guard Forces Rio Grande, said Thursday afternoon during a news conference in Mission, a town along the Rio Grande.
The service declined to say how many troops or boats are now patrolling the river in a mission dubbed Operation River Wall. Cumberland did note that troops are focused within the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas, covering about 260 miles of river.
“We are deploying a range of assets, personnel and equipment appropriate to maximize coverage of the Rio Grande River in Eastern Texas. Due to operational security concerns, we cannot provide specific details about deployment numbers or specific locations,” the service said in a statement Friday.
Since arriving two weeks ago, Coast Guard members have focused on acclimating to the river’s conditions — which are constantly changing — and have already worked with federal immigration agents to detain people crossing the river. Those groups have included children and adults, Cumberland said.
“In one instance, we received a call that there was a potential illegal crossing in one area. Our boats responded and were able to see where the [people] worked their way up the bank. We caught the tail end of it. We blocked off their ability to return to Mexico and called in Border Patrol so that the agents could apprehend the individuals,” he said.
The surge of Coast Guard assets is part of a larger effort by President Donald Trump to use the military to deter illegal activity at the southwest border. Since taking office in January, Trump has sent active-duty soldiers and Marines to patrol the border, transferred land to the military to allow troops to conduct law enforcement operations along the border and deployed Navy ships into the water south of the U.S.
Since February, Customs and Border Protection has said its agents have encountered roughly 12,000 people each month at the southern border, according to data from the agency. During the same period last year, monthly encounters ranged from 104,000 to nearly 190,000.
Texas also has a state-sponsored mission along the border, and Cumberland said the Coast Guard is working with those troops and state police, alongside federal law enforcement agents and service members.
The Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is unique among the military services in that already has legal authority to detain people suspected of illegal activity within federal waters along the U.S. coasts. Its members regularly board suspicious boats, detain people and confiscate illegal drugs headed toward land.
The river mission does not have an end date, Cumberland said. Members will return to their previous assignments once there is “100% control of the southern border,” he said.
