A 15-year-old Mexican teenager led police on a high-speed chase Tuesday in Mission, Texas, that ended with seven migrants exiting the vehicle on a dirt road, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The seven migrants were apprehended after a foot chase, while the teenage driver was arrested and charged with human smuggling and evading arrest. He is being held in a juvenile detention center.
Seven immigrants and the 15-year-old driver got out of the car after it veered off a dirt road in Mission, Texas. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Video released by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows police attempting to detain the teen in the south Texas border city.
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The teen refused to stop, eventually turning onto a dirt road less than a mile from the US-Mexico border. Seven migrants jumped out of the vehicle and ran into a wooded area that bordered the highway.
Seven migrants were detained after the salvage of the vehicle Tuesday morning. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Cartels are increasingly using children for their people-smuggling operations because “they are very conscious of the lenient consequences involving minors,” said Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“We continue to see an increase in child smugglers being recruited by transnational criminal organizations. In some cases, we are encountering child smugglers who are illegal immigrants. They are used to cross into the US for the sole purpose of smuggling both people like drugs.” Olivarez told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
“Social media platforms continue to be a great recruiting tool for smuggling specifically targeting minors.”
The driver, a 15-year-old Mexican teenager, was charged with human smuggling and evading arrest. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
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The 15-year-old arrested in Mission on Tuesday will go through juvenile court proceedings for the two felonies he has been charged with. Once those procedures are finished, he will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
