Free Republic

Border Patrol agents arrested a DACA recipient for allegedly engaging in human smuggling. The arrest followed a high-speed pursuit after the Mexican national refused to stop at an immigration checkpoint. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Interstate 35 immigration checkpoint near Cotulla, Texas, observed a 2012 Mazda 6 attempting to avoid inspection by circumventing the checkpoint on July 21. When agents attempted to stop the Mazda, the driver failed to yield and led agents on a chase that ended south of Dilley, Texas, according to Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and deputies from the...

SAN ANTONIO — A sheriff's deputy accused of threatening Mexican motorists with detention if they didn't pay him off has pleaded not guilty to extortion. Deputy Henry James Jr., 45, was arrested after he stopped two FBI agents late last month. The agents were posing as Mexican motorists after several drivers claimed they had been stopped by law enforcement and ordered to pay. The agents, pulled over by James for disregarding a stop sign, recorded the deputy telling them that because they were Mexican, they had to pay him $150 or be detained until a judge could see them, according...

COTULLA — Thieves beware: Not all loot may be what it seems in La Salle County. That enticing valuable left out on the front porch, or in the bed of a pickup, could be part of the Sheriff's Department's latest crackdown on crime. Authorities have begun concealing tracking devices on various items in and around Cotulla to see if anyone steals them. They're hiding them in toolboxes, lawnmowers and air compressors. Sheriff Victor S. Villarreal said cameras are also hidden nearby to record anyone who steals the baited loot. "It's a pretty good system," the sheriff said, adding word of...