A 15-year-old boy was arrested in Texas last week and is now facing charges for allegedly smuggling undocumented migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border and leading authorities on a high-speed chase.
As confirmed by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), at approximately 9 a.m. local time in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, a DPS trooper attempted to stop a vehicle that had allegedly committed multiple traffic violations in the northeast portion of the city. In trying to pull over the vehicle, the trooper put on his vehicle's emergency lights and sirens, at which point the suspect attempted to speed up to roughly 80 miles per hour and flee.
This resulted in a high-speed chase between the suspect and law enforcement, with an Air and Marine helicopter from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) eventually being drafted to aid DPS in the pursuit. The suspect ultimately came to a stop at the intersection of McCombs and Grouse Road.
Upon searching the vehicle, according to DPS, the driver was found to have been a 15-year-old, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed. Five undocumented migrants were also found in the car and later transferred to the CBP's custody, while the underage driver was arrested and charged with smuggling of persons and evading arrest/detention with a vehicle. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident. It has yet to be confirmed how the young suspect and the migrants came into contact.
Newsweek reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and Customs and Border Patrol via email for comment.
Situated on the furthest west point in Texas, El Paso is a major focal point for legal and illegal border crossings in the state, as it is across the Mexico border from the city of Cuidad Juarez. In September, the city's mayor, Oscar Leeser, claimed that over 2,000 migrants had come across the border into the city each day of the month, almost doubling the average daily number from the previous month of 1,074.
The City of El Paso's official website claims that its current surge in migrant crossings has been ongoing since April 2022, with the people making the crossings generally fleeing economic hardship in their home countries or "extreme" crime rates.
"The people crossing come from all parts of the world to escape economic devastation and extreme crime," the city's website explains. "The situation is dynamic. However, the main countries migrants are coming from today are Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba. Though the numbers have been as high as 90 percent and as low as 50 percent from Venezuela, the number is currently holding at approximately 70 percent. The remainder of the migrants is from other countries including Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba."
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
