Elon Musk’s Visit to Eagle Pass Border Crossing Was a Surprise to Border Patrol: Emails

The United States Border Patrol officials had little to no warning that billionaire Elon Musk had planned to very publicly visit the nation’s border with Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas, according to a report.

Emails obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests from NBC News show that border officials had not received an official request for the visit before Musk's appearance. Musk visited the site on September 28 with Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and discussed immigration with the lawmaker on a live stream posted to X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, which Musk owns.

Government officials reportedly discussed and briefed each other on Musk’s visit in the emails. NBC News says that while the emails provided to them thanks to the FOIA request have Musk’s name redacted, one officer describes in them an interaction that Musk live streamed. Also, Gonzales’ name was not redacted.

Musk wore aviator glasses and a black cowboy hat during his visit to Eagle Pass. During his self-filmed live stream, Musk warned that undocumented migrants were "breaking the law" — and that cities and towns had become overrun, "leading to a collapse of social services." Musk is an immigrant himself, being a South African native.

"As an immigrant to the United States, I am extremely pro immigrant," Musk said in his live stream.. "And I believe we need a greatly expanded legal immigration system and that we should let anyone in the country who is hard-working and honest and will be a contributor to the United States."

A day following his visit, Musk shared unconfirmed videos of migrants using blankets, towels, and other fabrics to safely cross the razor wire installed along the Rio Grande, saying “Situation is beyond insane & growing fast.”

Musk’s livestream video of his visit quickly attained millions of views after he posted it. The video now sits at 109.6 million views on X.

While many responded to the video thanking Musk for taking the time to visit the border and highlight its perceived issues, others focused instead on what the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX was wearing.

“LMAO Elon Musk accidentally wore his cowboy hat backward during his cosplay cowboy on the border stunt,” one user wrote.

In response, Musk fired back at his critics by posting that his boots are 20 years old and his hat is 10 years old, and also that he owns a lot of weapons that are no longer legally available. This apparently only served to increase mockery from Musk’s critics, who then claimed the billionaire was being thin-skinned.