A Texas oil subject employee has been detained in one in every 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 expenses at Cereso Estatal No. 3 in Juarez since March 2, when he unknowingly crossed the border in Columbus, New Mexico, whereas making an attempt to return dwelling to Hallsville after a job, his heartbroken mom, April Thomas, informed KLTV.
Thomas stated 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 cellphone with Caden, and he begins telling me the pace bumps are so dangerous on this city he’s in after which the following factor he’s telling me that he couldn’t flip round. We hear males round him yelling in Spanish,” Thomas stated.
The 23-year-old oil subject employee filmed the tense change on his cellphone 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 felony,” she stated, insisting her son “doesn’t deserve this.”
Hawkins’ sister stated her brother’s detainment has been “one of many hardest issues any of us has ever endured.”
“To listen to him on the cellphone sounding distraught has taken a toll on all of us,” Haley Nicole Hawkins stated.
Since his arrest, the household has spent tens of hundreds of {dollars} making an attempt to carry him dwelling and is now begging lawmakers to intervene.
“We’d like any person that’s extra highly effective than we’re,” Thomas stated.
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 scorching water, rest room 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 stated he’s “decided” to carry Hawkins dwelling by Christmas — joined US Sen. John Cornyn in calling for federal intervention and urging the general public to contact authorities places of work, KETK reported.
Legal professionals for Hawkins’ household stated 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 one in every of Mexico’s most harmful prisons, marked by violent riots, overcrowding, gang and inmate-run hierarchies, and repeated safety failures.
On New Yr’s Day 2023, the jail was rocked by a bloody riot orchestrated by the Los Mexicles gang, killing 10 guards and releasing round 30 inmates, the El Paso Occasions reported.
