Three members of the Texas National Guard were arraigned in federal court for subverting the very laws there were suppose to enforce (h/t to stormkite for bringing this to my attention). On Monday, Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco and Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, both of Laredo, and Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr. of Fort Worth, appeared before a federal magistrate on charges of conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants.
The three Guardsmen are assigned to border duties along the Texas-Mexico border as part of Operation Jump Start, President Bush’s initiative to place 6,000 Guard troops at the border to help local and federal authorities with immigration enforcement.
According to the criminal complaint, the arrests followed after a routine stop last Wednesday evening at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Cotulla in La Salle County, TX. National Guardsman Jose Rodrigo Torres was driving a white Ford passenger van when agents stopped the vehicle for an inspection. As the approached the van they found 24 illegal aliens hiding in the back of the van. Torres was wearing his military uniform when agents found him driving the immigrants. Once Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents arrived, Torres told ICE agents that he had been recruited by National Guardsman Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco to transport the immigrants. Torres also stated that he had already transported undocumented immigrants about seven times before that night, and Pacheco would pay him $1,000 to $3,500 per trip. Three of the passengers in Torres’ van identified him as the driver, according to the criminal complaint. They also said that they paid $1,500 to $2,000 to be smuggled into the United States, according to the complaint.
The complaint states that Torres was able avoid immigration inspection at the checkpoint with the assistance of a third National guardsman, Sgt. Clarence Hodge. According to Torres, Hodge would approach the “van to make it appear that they were doing National Guardsmen business.”
The criminal complaint also stated that Torres told agents that the three guardsmen would communicate via text messaging to coordinate the smuggling. ICE agents found a text message conversation between Pacheco and Torres. The message was instructing Torres that the trip was a go and that he would be paid $3,500 for the delivery.
… Pacheco to Torres on Wednesday reading, “ok it sounds pretty good but we need to take 24 people to make that happen and you will get 3500 does that sound good (sic).”
Torres responded via a text message on the same day reading, “24 will b tuff 2 fit but ill try (sic).”
Hours before Torres was detained by Border Patrol, a message from Hodge to Torres asked if he wanted to make a transport on June 8, … Torres wrote, “Tell them ill only do 1 @ no more than 20 people @ $150 a person and I want 2 leave at 1930 hrs and ill go 2 San Antonio if they want (sic).”
Families of the guardsmen are said to be in shock of the arrest according the Houston Chronicle. According to Pacheco’s family, Pacheco, served in Germany, Kosovo and Iraq over four years in the Army. Pacheco was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries he suffered in Iraq in 2004.
However, this is not the first time troops from Operation Jump Start are accused of illegal activity. Back in September, three other soldiers were arrested on charges that they opened fire in a district near Eagle Pass. According to local police, the guardsmen claimed that boredom was at the heart of a joyride with two cases of beer and a loaded 9 mm pistol.
The fact that there are US agents who are willing to smuggle either undocumented immigrants or drugs across the border for profit or some other illicit motive is not new. What bothers me; two of the guardsmen are Latino and given the anti-Brown sentiment that is running rapid in the US, what they just did was adding more fuel to the reconquista fable.