Syrian refugees at the Texas border

The five Syrian refugees who surrendered Friday at the Laredo border crossing have been sent to nearby immigration detention facilities. They will join two other Syrian families - who were apprehended last week.

These kinds of border incidents, typically, cause little concern in this South Texas town but that was before the recent attack in Paris along with a rising fear terrorists could be trying to slip into the country posing as refugees.

The Syrians caught in Laredo  join a long list of foreign  nationals - officially classified as O.T.M. - other than Mexican.

The 61,000 cases recorded so far this year -between January and June - could indicate  a downward trend when compared to the past two years. But since 2011 there has been a substantial influx with more than a half million O.T.M. apprehensions on the Texas border.