Texas border chaos: illegal migrant steals road roller, suspected smugglers lead police on high-speed chase

A suspected illegal immigrant stole a road roller from private ranch in Texas and drove off with the vehicle until it ran out of fuel.

Per Fox News’ Bill Melugin, the suspect snuck through the brush on a private ranch in Kinney County – which sits along the Texas-Mexico border – and stole the road roller. 

The suspected illegal immigrant drove the vehicle around six miles, crossing a highway and traveling onto a neighboring ranch until it ran out of fuel. He was never arrested. 

Fox News has contacted the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office for additional details. 

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Kinney County was also the site of a high-speed chase last week involving a Texas state trooper and a smuggler carrying three illegal immigrants. 

A video shared by Texas DPS on Wednesday shows a trooper led on a high-speed pursuit on US-90 in Kinney County. The driver reached speeds of 120 mph before losing control and crashing into a light pole in front of a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. 

The driver and passenger, both from Austin, Texas, admitted that they were getting paid $9,000 to smuggle three illegal immigrants from Honduras to Austin. Both were charged with human smuggling, evading arrest and engaging in organized criminal activity. 

President Biden said Wednesday it was his “intention” to visit the U.S.-Mexico border amid a record-high number of border crossings. 

The president made those comments at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, saying he intended to visit the border during his trip to the North American Leaders’ Summit on Jan. 9-10. That would mark Biden’s first trip to the border during his presidency. 

The possible trip comes amid a record-breaking crisis at the southern border. So far in FY 2023, there have been some 617,250 total migrant encounters, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources. In FY 2022, migrant encounters exceeded 2.3 million. 

President Biden has been repeatedly chastised for not visiting the border. Early last month, the president said there were “more important things going on” when asked why he’d visit a border state but not the U.S.-Mexico border itself. 

Fox News’ Adam Sabes contributed to this report.