E-Paper
Who is Caden Hawkins, Texas man held nine months in Mexico prison after accidently crossing border
Texas oil worker Caden Hawkins detained in a violent Mexican prison after accidentally crossing the border with a legally owned firearm.
Prefer HTon Google
A young Texas oil field worker has spent the past nine months locked inside one of Mexico’s most violent prisons after unknowingly crossing the border during what his family described as an “honest accident,” reported the New York Post.
According to an interview his mother gave KLTV, Caden Hawkins was arrested on March 2 in Juárez and charged with weapons offenses after Mexican authorities found a legally owned pistol and ammunition in his vehicle.
His family says he was following GPS directions home from a job when he inadvertently crossed into Mexico at the Columbus, New Mexico, port of entry.
Relatives and lawmakers are now pleading for federal intervention as Hawkins remains detained at Cereso Estatal No. 3 in Juárez, a notoriously dangerous prison known for riots, gang control, and widespread corruption.
Read More: US creates new military zone on Mexico border to crack down on illegal immigrants
Who is Caden Hawkins?
Caden Hawkins is a 23-year-old oil field worker from Hallsville, Texas, whose family says he accidentally drove across the U.S.–Mexico border earlier this year after relying on GPS to navigate home from a job site. His mother, April Thomas, told KLTV that Hawkins became confused by the route and realized too late that he was approaching an international crossing.
“I am on the phone with Caden, and he starts telling me the speed bumps are so bad in this town he’s in and then the next thing you know he is telling me that he couldn’t turn around. We hear men around him yelling in Spanish,” Thomas said, according to the New York Post.
Hawkins recorded part of the encounter on his phone before being taken into custody. Thomas later learned that Mexican authorities were charging him over the firearm and ammunition he carried: items she said he was legally licensed to possess in Texas.
Read More: New Mexico military zone: 82 people charged with trespassing, here's what happened
According to his sister, Haley Nicole Hawkins, the months-long detention has devastated the family. “To hear him on the phone sounding distraught has taken a toll on all of us,” she said.
Texas State Rep. Jay Dean claimed in a Facebook post that Hawkins is being treated as a “cash asset for a corrupt federal judge in Juarez, Mexico,” and alleged that the family has been “extorted for months.” He said Hawkins’ relatives are being “forced to pay over $1000 a week so Caden can have hot water, toilet paper, and semi-protection from violent inmates.”
