Teens are often behind the wheel in high-speed chases with Texas DPS – Houston Public Media

EL PASO, Texas (KTEP) – Just after dawn, a Texas State Patrol trooper radioed the alarm as he pursued a suspected migrant smuggler in east El Paso.

A black and white Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, vehicle was pursuing a red Chevrolet Equinox in light rain on a summer day. 19-year-old Milton Gonzalez was driving. He stopped at a busy intersection.

– Let me see your hands! the soldier shouted twice, getting out of the car. The scene was captured on trooper dash cam video obtained by KTEP News through a Texas Public Information Act request.

Watch the full video and other harassment videos here.

The video then shows the Equinox speeding away from the soldier. Gonzalez led the trooper on a chase, sometimes reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour for at least 40 minutes. They traveled through the narrow streets of Lower El Paso Valley. Gonzalez drove the wrong way on a residential road and pulled into traffic on Border Road, nearly hitting other cars.

Speed ​​chases are particularly common in border communities and involve teenagers and young adults, often US citizens, as part of a strategy by smugglers to evade the law. Chases pose a danger to residents as well.

Collisions resulted in injuries and deaths of people in vehicles, as well as passers-by.

From Jan. 1 to Sept. 22 of this year, DPS troopers initiated 258 pursuits, according to a KTEP News analysis. This compares to 296 chases during the same period last year. Although the total number decreased, the number of pursuits that ended in a crash increased slightly compared to the same period in 2023.

Under DPS policy, individual troopers decide when and whether to pursue a driver suspected of transporting undocumented immigrants.

The pursuit of Gonzalez ended in a crash on Border Highway when the trooper executed what’s known as a PIT maneuver, hitting the rear of the vehicle, causing it to flip twice and overturn. In the video, one of the passengers is ejected from the window, and the Equinox appears to roll onto his feet.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Gonzalez told KTEP News during an exclusive interview at Rogelio Sanchez State Prison in East El Paso County, where he is serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty on several charges. Among them is smuggling with the possibility of serious bodily injury or death.

An analysis of the cases by KTEP News found that teenagers and young adults are often the drivers involved in high-speed chases by state troopers chasing suspected smugglers transporting unauthorized migrants. The strategy is part of Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative.

Kelly Childress, El Paso County’s chief public defender, said her office has represented about 300 people accused of human smuggling this year. According to her, many drivers are teenagers or young people.

“And you look this person in the face, and they’ve never been arrested before, and you have to tell them, ‘By the way, if you’re convicted, you’re going to jail for at least 10 years.’ Childress said. “If we want to solve the problem of giving rides to people who might be migrants, and the state of Texas really wants to commit the resources to solve this problem, then start educating people.”

According to Oscar F. Hagelsieb, a 25-year veteran of federal law enforcement and president of Hagelsieb Strategic Investigation, HSI, transport organizations pay between $300 and $1,000 per migrant, depending on the length of the trip.

“Smugglers resort to recruiting teenagers and young people because they are more susceptible to the influence of easy money,” Hagelsieb added.

Social media used to be a recruiting tool, but today it’s more “word of mouth” because federal authorities have used secret social media profiles to identify recruiters, Hagelsayb said.

“However, this does not mean that social media does not play a big role in recruitment. Smugglers and recruiters show off flashy cars and jewelry and a lifestyle that many poor teenagers dream of on social media,” he said.

Some teenagers prosecuted by DPS have been involved in fatal crashes, like 17-year-old Joseph Anthony Maldonado. He has been charged with murder, and a trial is scheduled for today.

Maldonado ran a red light in a Dodge Charger, allegedly with six migrants, on October 4. He crashed into a blue Toyota Corolla, nearly tearing the roof off the compact car, killing 42-year-old Wendy Rodriguez, who was on her way to work.

In another case, Adrian Nico Brusti, 19, and Juelis Ceniceros, 20, were charged with two counts of murder after they were involved in a clash that left two migrants dead on November 20, 2023.

Brusti allegedly drove through a shopping center parking lot and the migrants jumped out of the moving vehicle on the northwest edge of El Paso County. Brusti allegedly led a high-speed chase at speeds of up to 100 mph that ended nearly 28 miles into the Lower Valley.

According to court documents, Brusti hit a curb and a traffic sign, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and overturn.

Most of the pursuits and crashes occur in northwest El Paso near the Texas-New Mexico state line, a precinct represented by El Paso County Commissioner Sergio Coronado.

He said state troopers should dedicate resources and technology to tracking drivers to their destination instead of engaging in high-speed chases, adding that “that could lead them to where the actual caches are or where other individuals are involved.”

Gonzalez, now 22, claims he did not know the people in the car he was driving were undocumented, even though he has pleaded guilty to smuggling charges. He says he was recruited on social media to give people a lift and was offered hundreds of dollars per passenger. He declined to say the exact amount.

While behind bars, he warns other young people looking to make a quick buck to “think twice. Do work that is legitimate.”

Angela Kocherga, news director of KTP, took part in the story.

This map is a representation of available data provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety as requested under the Texas Public Information Act. Color-coded icons represent DPS pursuits of alleged migrant smugglers caught by the agency between June 22, 2023 and September 22, 2024. Blue icons usually represent a pursuit, green means a state trooper has terminated the pursuit, and orange represents a pursuit that ended in a collision. The icons displayed on the map contain the data that accompanied the longitude and latitude coordinates. According to the DPS, in the period from January 1, 2024 to September 22, 2024, 257 chases were recorded. And from June 22, 2023 to December 29, 2023, 257 chases were recorded.