One Border Patrol checkpoint goes quiet near SpaceX. Two new checkpoints are popping up in Starr County.

As U.S. Border Patrol moves to establish two new interior checkpoints in Starr County, the agency appears to have quietly shut down a federal checkpoint near Starbase in Cameron County.

Seven months ago, Frankie Olivo, a Brownsville resident who ran for a spot on the school board in 2020, posted a video and subsequent photos on social media showing an unmanned Border Patrol checkpoint along Texas Highway 4 — the main roadway leading to Boca Chica Beach and SpaceX’s Starbase facility.

Olivo’s post asked whether the checkpoint had been removed and noted that vehicles were passing through without inspection.

More recently, a Rio Grande Valley Business Journal reporter drove through the same checkpoint and also saw it unmanned. No signs of agents, and no active screening was taking place. The reporter, Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza, drove through without being stopped.

After ValleyCentral reported the new checkpoints on Monday, Mosbrucker-Garza asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection whether the Highway 4 checkpoint had been closed. CBP did not respond to those questions.

That apparent quiet comes as pressure on the Highway 4 corridor continues to mount.

The narrow two-lane road has seen daily traffic surge more than tenfold in recent years, and the Texas Department of Transportation is planning a widening project to expand it into a four-lane highway to ease congestion and accommodate growing travel demand.

The apparent inactivity near Starbase contrasts with CBP’s confirmation this week that it is establishing two new interior Border Patrol checkpoints near Roma as part of ongoing border security operations. The agency has not provided a timeline, specific locations, or details about how the new checkpoints could affect freight movement or travel patterns.

The juxtaposition has drawn attention in a region where enforcement activity, infrastructure investment, and industrial growth are increasingly intersecting.

SpaceX has become one of the most significant industrial sites in South Texas, anchoring a rapidly expanding aerospace cluster in Cameron County.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has also taken on an advisory role within President Donald Trump’s orbit on technology and government spending issues — as his companies have increasingly secured large space and federal defense contracts.

CBP has not indicated whether the apparent inactivity of the Highway 4 checkpoint and the deployment of new checkpoints in Starr County are connected.

Without agency clarification, it remains unclear whether the Highway 4 site is permanently closed, temporarily inactive, or operating under a different posture — or how enforcement priorities are being reassessed across different parts of the Rio Grande Valley.