EAGLE PASS, Texas — A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper died as a result of critical injuries he sustained in a vehicle accident. The rollover crash occurred just north of Eagle Pass on Friday evening. The trooper was airlifted to a San Antonio hospital for advanced medical care where he later succumbed to his injuries.
A law enforcement source informed Breitbart Texas the accident occurred after a tracking operation in a rural area near Farm to Market Road 1907, north of Eagle Pass. The trooper, according to the source, assisted Border Patrol agents in tracking and arresting a group of migrants who had illegally entered the United States nearby.
After arresting the group of migrants, the trooper and the migrants were riding in the open bed of a pick-up truck being driven by a Border Patrol agent, a law enforcement source stated. The driver of the vehicle lost control, causing the vehicle to roll into the dry irrigation canal. Border Patrol agents on the scene provided emergency medical care to the trooper until an ambulance arrived. The trooper was airlifted to a San Antonio-area hospital from the Fort Duncan Regional Medical Center late Friday.
The Texas Department of Public Safety informed Breitbart Texas that Special Agent Anthony Salas succumbed to his injuries shortly after 11:00 a.m. on Saturday with his family by his side.
Special Agent Salas, 37, joined the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Highway Patrol in 2013 and was stationed in El Paso. He served as a Highway Patrol trooper before promoting to a special agent in the department’s Criminal Investigations Division. Special Agent Salas was a member of the DPS West Texas Special Response Team and had previously served in the United States Marine Corps before joining the department.
Special Agent Salas was deployed to the Eagle Pass area in support of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. The operation involved the initial deployment of more than 1,000 highway troopers and Texas Army National Guard soldiers in March of 2021. Since the operation began, more than 1,600 troopers and upward of 10,000 Texas National Guard soldiers have been deployed to the Texas border region to stem the increased flow of migrants crossing the Texas-Mexico border.
The Eagle Pass area has seen a significant increase in migrant traffic during the month of January. The increase in migrant crossings in the Del Rio Sector, which includes Eagle Pass, has resulted in the sector becoming the busiest in the nation.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter
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