WATCH: New signs for South Texas military border zone are hard to spot

MISSION, Texas ( Border Report ) — A small fishing boat slowly moved from the waters of the Rio Grande into the boat ramp of an RV park on Friday, passing a new sign declaring this area "restricted" and part of a new military zone.

But the driver never saw it.

In fact, several boaters and fishermen with whom Border Report spoke on Friday had no idea that the small sign, fixed in concrete on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, was there to warn people about the restricted area.

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The red and white sign with black lettering put up Wednesday night reads: "Warning: Restricted area. This Department of Defense property has been declared a restricted area by authority of the commander. ... Unauthorized entry is prohibited. ... All persons and vehicles entering herein may be detained and searched. Photographing or making notes, drawings, maps or graphic representations of the area or its activities are prohibited unless specifically authorized by the commander. Any such material found in the possession of unauthorized persons will be confiscated."

The signs are in English and Spanish and face the river, though they are not very visible to anyone on a boat who is traveling fast or not specifically looking for it. So, it's not unlikely that someone trying to cross the border illegally would also miss it.

Several boaters told Border Report they couldn't read the sign from the water. They also said they planned to continue boating and fishing on the Rio Grande, overlooking the Mexican shore.

Last month, the Defense Department announced 250 miles of lands once owned by the International Boundary and Water Commission in Hidalgo and Cameron counties would now be part of Joint Base San Antonio.

The Air Force said the new zone is a National Defense Area "designed to support the Department of Defense's ongoing mission to secure the southern border in coordination with inter-agency and partner stakeholders."

It's unclear how wide the military buffer zone is in this part of the border. The two NDAs previously established in the El Paso area in Far West Texas and along New Mexico's entire border with Mexico earlier this year are 60 feet wide, but federal officials have told Border Report that they are as wide as a mile in some undisclosed locations.

Officials there have put up 2,000 of these same signs in recent months.

Migrants who enter the country illegally and onto an NDA can face charges of trespassing on military property in addition to illegal entry.

South Texas county judge calls military border zone "drastic"

Borderwide, it's unclear what access locals will have to these areas in the future. On Friday, there were no visible signs warning people that they are entering a restricted area from the U.S. side.

On Friday, a giant brown cow lumbered from farmlands in Reynosa, Mexico, to drink water from the Rio Grande. It appeared to look in the direction of the sign on Friday morning — near the boat ramp at Chimney RV Park — but then returned to its grazing.

A Border Patrol official who was at the RV Park told Border Report that he was also looking for the new sign.

And another law enforcement officer said three or four signs were put up Wednesday night, and more are to come.

The one at the Chimney RV Park boat ramp faces the Rio Grande and is not visible from the shoreline. But a park employee said residents have expressed concerns about it.

Earlier this month, Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said he was not informed nor consulted about the military zone until after it was announced.

When asked what that means for residents trying to access the river and/or their borderland properties, local officials told Border Report that they are still trying to figure it out and are reaching out to the military for more guidance.

All of them, however, agree that the signs are too small.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.

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UK shuts Afghan resettlement schemes – what it means for small boat crossings

The UK has abruptly closed two schemes designed to resettle Afghans who fled their homes after The Taliban seized power in 2021. .

The programme allowed Afghans who had worked with the British forces or were otherwise particularly vulnerable to the Taliban to apply for a visa to live in the UK.

While the number of Afghans applying for the programme had decreased over time, it was still active, with nearly 7,000 people resettled under the schemes in the year ending March 2025.

The schemes are no longer open to new applications, but those who had already submitted applications will still be processed.

The closure has triggered fears that, without an official route to resettlement, more Afghans will now turn to small boat crossings to try to reach the UK.

As small boat crossings soar to record levels, what do experts think?

Unlikely to see increase in small boats

Unlike the Ukrainian resettlement scheme, the Afghan programs only applied to specific groups and not the wider population.

This meant that Afghans who were not eligible under the UK's program still had to seek asylum like other nationalities, and they continued to cross on small boats throughout the duration of the program, whereas Ukrainians have not.

In the year ending March 2025, Afghans were the most common nationality among small boat arrivals. , accounting for 16 percent of all those arriving.

The number of Afghans crossing the Channel peaked in 2022, also when the scheme was open, with 9,100 people making the journey.

Mihnea Cuibus, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, said a surge in the number of small boat arrivals was “fairly unlikely” because these were “very different groups”.

"There were always large numbers coming in the last few years, and the Afghan scheme, the safe and legal route, didn't really change much of that," he said.

“However, those numbers were lower than what we saw for resettlement last year, when we had around 7,000 people coming in for the schemes and we had a little over 5,000 people coming in small boats.”

The big difference was in gender distribution; if you look at the Afghan program, about half of the resettled Afghans were women, whereas looking at small boat arrivals, around 95 percent of Afghan small boat arrivals are men.

That's one effect of the closure of the scheme; it's no longer a route for Afghan women into the country.

"Safe and legal routes can prevent people from entering the country irregularly, but only if they are sufficiently large," he added.

In the case of the Afghan schemes, these were never really large enough compared to the overall demand for settlement from Afghanistan – if you look at the overall Afghan population of refugees and people who are internally displaced, that's well into the millions.

Possible small rise in crossings as Afghans forced back

Jon Feantonby, chief analyst at the Refugee Council, said there could be a small increase in small boat crossings, but the impact was difficult to determine.

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"We know from the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, that in terms of the people that they think are in need of resettlement to somewhere like the UK, Afghans are the highest nationality at the moment," he said.

There has always been a much greater need for safety than could be met by those schemes.

Feantonby said a possible increase in small boats depended on what happened within Afghanistan itself and the neighboring countries to which many Afghans have fled.

He added: "What we've seen in recent weeks is the news that Afghans who have been in neighboring countries are being pushed back to Afghanistan, and that is either going to put people at risk or force people to take onward journeys away from the region."

Smugglers' business model fueled

Aid workers in Calais warned that the scheme shutting down would fuel people smugglers who organise Channel crossings.

Steve Smith, chief executive of Care4Calais, said that the closure was "completely counterproductive if the UK Government's goal is to end Channel crossings."

“Closing safe routes fuels the business model of smuggling gangs as it leaves people fleeing persecution, like Afghans, with no other option than danger – crossing through hostile countries, relying on smugglers, and risking their lives at sea,” he said.

We need new safe routes to be created, not existing ones to be closed.

The Government was approached for comment.

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