Two people have died and another 10 were injured in a horrific crash in Uvalde, Texas, the town where 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were murdered earlier this year.
The incident is only the latest in a string of daily high-speed immigrant smuggling events through downtown Uvalde that local, state, and federal law enforcement have engaged in this year and underscores how a quiet town 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border has been deeply affected by the prevalence of transnational criminal activity in their community.
Police chases of drug and human smugglers have become so common in the town of 16,000 residents that when a teenage gunman carried out a mass shooting at a nearby elementary school, staff assumed the lockdown alerts on their phones were for another police chase through town, the Washington Examiner reported in July. In the three months leading up to the shooting on May 24, the school had sent staff more than 45 alerts to “secure” or “lock down” the building because of nearby police activity.
On Thursday evening, the driver of a pickup truck attempted to drive around a Border Patrol highway checkpoint approximately 8 miles outside the city’s downtown. The only checkpoint near Uvalde is northwest of the city on Highway 90, which connects the border city of Del Rio with Uvalde.
AS MANY AS 20 IMMIGRANTS FEARED DEAD AFTER HURRICANE IAN SHIPWRECKS BOAT SAILING TO FLORIDA
At the scene of a large crash here in Uvalde. Waiting for information on what happened. This is at Getty and Main. According to a constable’s Facebook page, three vehicles are invoked and AirLIFE has been requested. Multiple injuries. pic.twitter.com/1mwIhO6O7Z
— Leigh Waldman (@LeighWaldman) September 28, 2022
The driver was identified by local police as a suspected immigrant smuggler who had been trying to outrun a Border Patrol vehicle, though it was not clear if the Border Patrol agent had continued the pursuit inside city limits or stopped before entering the city.
The smuggler drove off the road into an adjacent field and blasted through at least one fence before continuing at a high rate of speed into Uvalde, the city’s police chief, Daniel Rodriguez, told reporters.
A Border Patrol agent who observed the truck go around the checkpoint chased the vehicle, local news station KSAT reported. The Border Patrol declined to comment on the incident.
The driver refused to pull over and crashed into an 18-wheeler and a third vehicle as it sped through the town’s main intersection of Main Street and Getty Street. The resulting crash was so horrific that first responders put up a yellow blanket around the scene to conceal the human fatalities and injured.
Rodriguez said the two deceased victims and 10 who were wounded had been packed into the pickup truck and that the occupants of the tractor trailer and third vehicle had not been seriously hurt. Those injured were taken to hospitals in Uvalde and San Antonio.
Police blocked traffic through the main intersection in town for more than four hours after the crash until the tractor trailer was able to be towed away.
Crews are clearing the scene of the deadly accident in #Uvalde today on Main st. and Getty. After a few hours, the semi involved in the crash that was the result of a pursuit is finally being towed ?? pic.twitter.com/51EIRi9PI7
— Lidia Terrazas (@LidiaTerrazas) September 29, 2022
The prevalence of police chases in the vicinity was a well-known problem in town, according to Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin. The town averaged two to three chases per day earlier this year, he told the National Review in March.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
U.S. citizen and Mexican drivers who work for the Mexican cartels are paid to pick up illegal immigrants after they have crossed the border and transport them to major cities such as San Antonio and Houston. Although many illegal immigrants, including families, immediately seek out and surrender to Border Patrol agents at the border, others evade law enforcement and attempt to get into the interior of the country without getting caught.
