Coyote chase ends in crash

MISSION - A police chase Wednesday morning that ended with a mother and her two young children in a canal underscored yet again the danger human smugglers pose to motorists.

Authorities reported no serious injuries, but the crash near Farm-to-Market Road 495 and North Stewart Road illustrated the challenges coyotes pose to the officers charged with catching them.

Mission police started the chase on westbound FM 495 after a man driving a truck ran a red light near Stewart, Mission police Chief Leo Longoria said. The man refused to pull over and turned north onto Bryan Road and then drove along a canal bank back toward Stewart.

As he crossed Stewart from the canal bank the truck collided with an SUV carrying the mother and her two children, Longoria said. The pursuing officer immediately ran from his vehicle and dove into the canal to pull the family to safety. A nearby pedestrian assisted.

The driver of the truck and the immigrants who were on board tried to flee.

"They have no regard for their human cargo," U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Dan Doty said of the driver and other coyotes. "They don't care about the illegal immigrants and they don't care about the public at all."

While the federal government is tasked with enforcing immigration laws, the burden of apprehending coyotes and their smuggled immigrants falls upon local police departments. Once detained, the smugglers and the illegal immigrants are turned over to federal authorities.

Last year, authorities apprehended an average of more than 200 illegal immigrants a day in the Rio Grande Valley.
Recently, human smugglers have been routinely filling vehicles beyond capacity as the coyotes face stepped-up enforcement along the border.

The coyote in Wednesday's incident had packed 23 illegal immigrants into the GMC pickup truck in which they were traveling.

"These types of incidents are occurring more often than we would like," Longoria said. Police chiefs in the border region face a difficult decision over whether to engage in a pursuit.

Chases involving illegal immigrants often start after a minor traffic violation.

Other times police notice a driver behaving suspiciously, or officers may see a hand or head poking up from the bed of a truck, said La Joya police spokesman Officer Joe Cantu, whose agency often engage in high-speed pursuits of coyotes and their human cargo.
"If you see 20 people in a vehicle and you know there's no family reunion somewhere, chances are they're illegal," Cantu said.

Longoria said authorities consider several variables before pursuing a coyote, including traffic and weather conditions and the potential danger to other people on the road. The decision is further complicated because an officer must make it without knowing why the driver is fleeing, he said.

"The video (of the Wednesday chase) indicated there was no reason to believe there was any ... immediate danger" to civilians, Longoria said. "(The officer) made that decision and I think any other officer would have made that decision."

Last month in Peñitas, a Ford F-150 carrying more than 20 illegal immigrants collided with another vehicle on Expressway 83. Three were killed and another 14 were injured.

After Wednesday's incident, Mission police and officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol found and detained 22 immigrants, including the suspected driver.

Three were found at the scene with minor injuries and were transported to area hospitals for treatment. The mother and her children were taken to McAllen Medical Center with minor injuries.

Two area schools were briefly on lockdown as police pursued the immigrants.

Mission police and ICE continue to investigate. The driver is expected to face federal charges, but it wasn't clear when he would be arraigned.

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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.