Video shows Texas DPS trooper cross Mexican border at El Paso-Juárez to detain driver

Daniel Borunda and Lauren Villagran, El Paso Times
·3 min read
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Videos circulating online show a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper apparently crossing the Mexican border and dragging a man out of a car in Juárez.

One of the videos online appears to be from the Texas DPS vehicle dashboard camera and the other from a bystander's cellphone, which shows the trooper and the Texas DPS vehicle in Mexico.

In the dash cam video, Mexican National Guard soldiers can be seen flashing their flashlights to pull over the driver of a red sports car. A voice inside the trooper's vehicle can be heard saying, in English, "Stop him!" Then an armed, uniformed trooper is seen pulling the driver out of the red car and forcing him to the ground.

It is a federal crime in Mexico to carry a weapon or ammunition into the country. There are multiple signs in El Paso warning southbound drivers not to take firearms across the international bridge.

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DPS spokesman Eliot Torres said the DPS cannot confirm the authenticity of the apparent dashcam video or how it got released to the public; the video and its release are under investigation, he said. Torres said the DPS is working on a statement regarding the events and could not provide additional details.

The passerby's video of the stop lasts several minutes. The armed trooper eventually returns the driver to his seat and speaks to him while Mexican National Guard soldiers mill about. It wasn't clear from the videos whether the stop resulted in an arrest or other citation.

A screenshot of a video uploaded to social media appears to show a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper crossing the international boundary on the Bridge of the Americas while pursuing a vehicle. The officer appears to draw his weapon and pull the driver out as Mexican National Guard officers watch.
A screenshot of a video uploaded to social media appears to show a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper crossing the international boundary on the Bridge of the Americas while pursuing a vehicle. The officer appears to draw his weapon and pull the driver out as Mexican National Guard officers watch.

The incident allegedly occurred at the Bridge of the Americas over the weekend. The international border is located at the top, or midpoint, of the bridge connecting El Paso and Juárez.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection referred all questions to Texas DPS.

The fallout grew quickly in Juárez, with complaints on social media about the inaction of the Mexican National Guard, the violation of national sovereignty and the "invasion" by U.S. agents, an apparent clapback at the rhetoric of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

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Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa, the federal delegate in Chihuahua, blamed the incident "on the proximity that we have" at the border in comments to Juárez newspaper El Diario.

If the National Guard took no action against the armed Texas trooper it was because "they didn't think it was a serious case; they didn't need additional protocol since it was an incident without relevance," Loera de la Rosa said.

It is not uncommon for Mexican federal police and soldiers unfamiliar with Juárez-El Paso border bridge traffic flows to unintentionally cross the borderline into the United States ‒ although rarely does a law enforcement pursuit result in an attempted arrest on the "wrong" side of the Rio Grande.

In 2021, 14 Mexican soldiers were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for about five hours after inadvertently crossing the border at the Bridge of the Americas.

A screenshot of a video uploaded to social media appears to show a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper crossing the international boundary on the Bridge of the Americas while pursuing a vehicle. The officer appears to draw his weapon, pointing it at the driver’s side, then pulling the driver out as Mexican National Guard officers stand by, watching.

CBP officers approached the military trucks and temporarily detained the soldiers and secured their weapons and equipment. Photos shared on social media showed soldiers sitting on the asphalt and a military pickup stopped near the CBP checkpoints at the foot of the bridge on the El Paso side.

The soldiers, who told CBP that they did not realize they had entered U.S. territory, were released after CBP contacted Mexican military leadership.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Video shows DPS trooper cross El Paso bridge to Mexico, detain driver