Texas National Guard soldier accused of attempting to smuggle illegal alien across border: 'I am so stupid'

A Texas National Guard soldier admitted that he demonstrated a serious lapse in judgment after officials reportedly caught him attempting to smuggle an illegal alien across the southern border in a government-issued SUV that also had a weapon inside.

Just before 4 p.m. last Sunday, an unidentified Texas National Guard soldier was arrested in or near Kinney County, Texas, after the government vehicle he had been driving at some point also carried a passenger suspected of being an illegal immigrant, according to reporting from Ali Bradley, a NewsNation journalist covering the southern border.

Law enforcement became suspicious after the soldier quickly "turned around when he approached a pop-up tactical Border Patrol checkpoint off 674 in Kinney County that had only been operational for a few days," Bradley wrote, citing Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe. Agents with the Texas Department of Public Safety then began pursuing the vehicle and ultimately brought it to a stop using spike strips.

After the driver, who was wearing street clothes, had been extricated from the vehicle, the officers on the scene seemed to sense immediately that they'd stumbled upon a sensitive case involving one of their own. When examining various cards ostensibly removed from the driver's wallet, several officials try to determine the driver's military affiliation.

"National Guard? State Guard?" one officer asks.

"He said Army," another replies.

The officer whose bodycam footage Bradley shared sighs heavily throughout the video. When the driver alerts him that there is a weapon inside the vehicle, the officer exclaims, "Oh, you got a weapon in the vehicle, too? Jesus Christ, man!" The presence of the weapon "escalated the smuggling charge," Bradley reported, though the exact charges against the driver remain unclear.

When asked why he had attempted to evade police, the driver states that he was "very scared." As he is placed in handcuffs, he adds, "Man, I am so stupid."

"Yeah, you are f***ing stupid, man," another officer quickly retorts.

No other individual appears to have been in the vehicle at the time the driver was arrested. However, multiple officers reported having seen at least one person "bail[] out," likely from the vehicle in question. "I saw the one on the fence," one officer stated.

Another brief exchange caught on the video indicated that a "Hispanic male" had been spotted in connection with the vehicle, but most of the details of that conversation are inaudible.

According to Bradley, the driver had allegedly been "promised" somewhere between $5,000 and $6,000 to smuggle the alleged illegal alien. The driver was reportedly deployed to Eagle Pass, Texas, from McAllen as part of Operation Lone Star, an initiative from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to deter illegal border crossings. The incident remains under investigation by the Texas DPS.

Both Bradley and Newsweek reached out to Abbott's office and the Texas DPS for comment, and Newsweek made an additional request for comment from the Kinney County Sheriff's Office as well. It appears that none of these offices or agencies have yet replied.

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