A truck driver tragically ended his own life after being nabbed for a suspected migrant smuggling operation at a Texas border checkpoint on February 17th, per U.S. Border Patrol.
The incident: The red tractor-trailer was stopped around 6:45 p.m. at the I-35 checkpoint. A K9 unit alerted to potential contraband, leading to the discovery of seven migrants concealed in the cab.
- While in detention, the truck driver, now alone in cell 103, requested to call his mother several times in a span of over two hours, being permitted only monitored calls.
- At 10:39 p.m., officers found the driver unresponsive with his jacket tied around a privacy partition and his neck.
- Efforts to revive him failed, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital just over an hour later.
The aftermath: Body-camera footage exists, but Border Patrol's checkpoint video system was not fully operational during the incident. The migrants, interviewed later, claimed no interaction with the truck driver after their arrest according to the Laredo Morning Times.
Authorities cited technical issues with the checkpoint's video recording system and clarified that the driver and the migrants were kept in separate cells post-capture.
What's missing: The Border Patrol stated the incident was caught on multiple body-worn cameras; however, it acknowledged the checkpoint's main video system was not functioning properly at the time.
On the record: "The individuals stated that they never spoke to the man and that after they were apprehended, the man was placed in a separate cell," a U.S. Border Patrol statement elaborated.