Texas Teacher Charged With Human Smuggling
A Texas teacher is looking at spending up to six to eight years in prison after being arrested for human smuggling. Brandon Garcia, a teacher in Houston, was arrested with four illegal immigrants that were in his car. They had entered the country earlier in the month in Eagle Pass according to the Houston Chronicle.
The 26 year old Middle School teacher in the Houston Independent School District was pulled over for a traffic violation in south Texas according to the Houston Chronicle. He presented his Houston ISD school ID card. When officers approached Garcia's car, the four illegal immigrants attempted to hide.
As the Houston Chronicle reports, authorities believe that Garcia was contacted via social media and faces serious jail time. authorities believe many people who have no criminal record, like Garcia turn to human smuggling for extra income.
According to Coe, Kinney County officials say 741 people in 2022 were caught smuggling migrants from the Texas-Mexico border, many of them first-time offenders with zero criminal histories like Gracia.
"Best I can tell, this is his first time," Coe said. "We are catching some that have no criminal history, that have not been in trouble before in their life and hit a point of life where they think they need money bad enough they're going to try this so we need to turn the economy around we need to educate people and we need to find the source."
Garcia is out on bond. He faces state jail time of up to six to eight years in jail if convicted.