Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Brush Team operators and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents apprehended 10 illegal immigrants near Roma in Starr County on June 7, 2026, under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.
Among those apprehended was a female national from Russia designated as a special interest alien (SIA), a classification U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) applies to nationals from countries the agency identifies as posing potential national security concerns.
🚨 DPS Brush Team, USBP Apprehend Group that Included Russian Special Interest Alien in Starr Co. 🚨
As part of Gov @GregAbbott_TX’s #OperationLoneStar, the @TxDPS Brush Team and U.S. Border Patrol working an anti-smuggling operation in Starr Co apprehended a group of 10 illegal… pic.twitter.com/v0owBHMHet
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) June 10, 2026
All 10 individuals were transferred to USBP custody following the anti-smuggling sweep near the Nuevo Roma community. The state-federal partnership positions DPS tactical units in areas where illegal crossers risk evading federal detection. Russian nationals rarely appear in South Texas SIA intercepts.
Recent DPS operations along the border have yielded SIAs predominantly from China, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Egypt, making the Russian national’s apprehension an outlier in the region’s documented SIA pattern through mid-2026.
The operation took place in the Rio Grande Sector, where illegal border crossings continue despite federal claims of enhanced border security. NewsNation reported on June 9, 2026, citing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data, that an average of 48 daily gotaways, persons who cross between ports of entry without federal apprehension, are still recorded along the southern border.
Mexican cartels continue to coordinate those crossings, according to the report.
The DPS Brush Team has conducted multiple anti-smuggling operations in Starr County in 2026, including a 15-person group arrest near La Grulla on April 9 and a six-person group in Roma on May 6 that included a Chinese SIA.
Since Operation Lone Star launched in March 2021, Texas DPS has recorded more than 538,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions and referrals to federal custody, according to DPS data reported by The Center Square in March 2026.
