A Texas oil discipline employee has been detained in certainly one of Mexico’s most harmful prisons for 9 months after crossing the border in an “sincere accident” — whereas his household pleads for his secure return.
Caden Hawkins, 23, has been locked up on weapons prices at Cereso Estatal No. 3 in Juarez since March 2, when he unknowingly crossed the border in Columbus, New Mexico, whereas attempting to return residence to Hallsville after a job, his heartbroken mom, April Thomas, advised KLTV.
Thomas mentioned her son’s GPS directed him to the US–Mexico border with out him realizing it, and he didn’t perceive the place he was till it was too late to show round.
“I’m on the telephone with Caden, and he begins telling me the velocity bumps are so dangerous on this city he’s in after which the subsequent factor you already know he’s telling me that he couldn’t flip round. We hear males round him yelling in Spanish,” Thomas mentioned.
The 23-year-old oil discipline employee filmed the tense alternate on his telephone moments earlier than he was hauled away in handcuffs.
His mom later realized he was detained for having a pistol and ammunition with him — a firearm he was legally licensed to hold — and insists it was an “sincere accident.”
“My son isn’t a legal,” she mentioned, insisting her son “doesn’t deserve this.”
Hawkins’ sister mentioned her brother’s detainment has been “one of many hardest issues any of us has ever endured.”
“To listen to him on the telephone sounding distraught has taken a toll on all of us,” Haley Nicole Hawkins mentioned.
Since his arrest, the household has spent tens of 1000’s of {dollars} attempting to convey him residence and is now begging lawmakers to intervene.
“We’d like someone that’s extra highly effective than we’re,” Thomas mentioned.
East Texas State Rep. Jay Dean claimed that Hawkins is getting used as a “money asset for a corrupt federal choose in Juarez, Mexico,” and that his “household has been extorted for months.”
Dean claimed Hawkins’ household is being “pressured to pay over $1000 every week so Caden can have sizzling water, bathroom paper, and semi-protection from violent inmates.”
“That is completely unacceptable and we have to ban collectively and drive our federal authorities to BRING CADEN HOME,” Dean wrote on Fb.
Dean — who mentioned he’s “decided” to convey Hawkins residence by Christmas — joined US Sen. John Cornyn in calling for federal intervention and urging the general public to contact authorities workplaces, KETK reported.
Attorneys for Hawkins’ household mentioned his nine-month-old attraction is probably not reviewed for as much as two years and warned he may face a sentence of as much as 4 years.
Cereso Estatal No. 3 is thought to be certainly one of Mexico’s most harmful prisons, marked by violent riots, overcrowding, gang and inmate-run hierarchies, and repeated safety failures.
On New 12 months’s Day 2023, the jail was rocked by a bloody riot orchestrated by the Los Mexicles gang, killing 10 guards and liberating round 30 inmates, the El Paso Occasions reported.
