Plumbing 
Melissa Federspill|Leader-News
Amy Carnes, owner of Amy’s Attic in downtown Uvalde. Her storefront sustained damage in May of 2023 as a result of a human-smuggling related wreck.
Amy Carnes, owner of Uvalde downtown staple Amy’s Attic, was out front watering her potted plants minutes before a high speed chase barreling down Getty Street ended with a crash into her storefront.
Carnes had stopped by the store after church to make some notes for the staff and do some housekeeping, as she and her husband were headed for vacation the next day.
“I’d probably been home five minutes. And the phone rang,” Carnes recalled.
A teenager from Louisiana, suspected of human smuggling and driving a 2011 Honda, was attempting to evade law enforcement when he ran a red light and struck a black Ford F-150 truck. The collision, which happened about 10:30 a.m. on May 21, 2023, propelled the pickup into the store’s display window at 116 N. Getty St.
“Whenever I got here, the kid – and I mean, he was a kid, that was driving the car was sitting right outside. He couldn’t have been, I’m guessing, 17 years old, maybe 18. And I just thought, you know what, this can all be replaced,” she said.
Carnes is among a number of business owners, landowners and community members across the region the uptick in chases since Operation Lone Star’s conception has affected.
Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbot’s sweeping 2021 border legislation initiative, has financed and demonstrably incentivized increased arrests and pursuits of migrants and potential smugglers along Texas’s southern border. New funding and altered job descriptions have made issues at the border apply to officers at every level of law enforcement.
With policing of immigration at an all-time high, vehicle pursuits tied to human smuggling have peaked recently in Uvalde and Kinney counties, ultimately affecting vehicular injury and death rates at the local level.
By the numbers
Operation Lone Star’s launch resulted in law enforcement apprehending more than 488,500 migrants and arresting nearly 40,000 people, according to December 2023 data from the state. Texas has spent nearly $10 billion to keep the program running, CBS News reported in January.
The total number of DPS human smuggling-pursuit related injuries or deaths in Uvalde and Kinney counties increased from 2 to 34, or by 1,600 percent, in Operation Lone Star’s first full year. In 2021, two people were injured and no one died. The following year, 29 people were injured in varying capacities and five people died in crashes.
Although 2023 numbers ebbed from the 2022 spike, injuries in 2023 were still higher with eight total injuries.
The number of Texas Department of Public Safety initiated chases in recent years climbed from five in 2019 to 206 in 2023. Uvalde and Kinney counties saw spikes between 2020 and 2021 and between 2021 and 2022, which respectively saw 554-percent and 41-percent increases.
The number of Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office smuggling chases jumped from 30 to 102 between 2020 and 2021. During that same time, the number of people who sustained significant bodily injury jumped from one to four.
The number of UCSO- led chases has tapered in recent years, dropping to 88 in 2022 and 55 in 2023.
This doesn’t indicate that the total number of chases in the county has dropped. Rather, the agency more commonly assists the Texas Department of Public Safety with these pursuits, according to UCSO.
The city of Uvalde also recorded an uptick in chases.
The number of human-smuggling-related pursuits the Uvalde Police Department participated in, whether that be leading or assisting a chase, increased 83 percent in Lone Star’s first full year.
UPD chase rates were significantly lower in the years preceding Operation Lone Star. The department says it participated in one chase in 2019 and three in 2020. In 2023, it was 68.
The city conducted 36 vehicle pursuits in 2021, and that number climbed to 66 in 2022, despite UPD chief Daniel Rodriguez’s instructions to his officers not to pursue. Department chases in 2022 and 2023 resulted in one injury for each year, compared to no injuries in previous years. UPD also assisted other agencies on chases that resulted in two fatalities.
“I remind my lieutenants, my command staff, very, very frequently, let’s make sure we are keeping an eye on the pursuits. Let’s make sure if it gets out of hand, we don’t pursue,” Rodriguez told city council on Aug. 24, 2021, noting that the department’s goal is to prevent anybody getting hurt.
He also pointed to the influx of DPS troopers in Uvalde as “maybe helping to slow the chase levels, with troopers apprehending human smugglers before they make it to town.”
In 2021, the department implemented a policy that, as a safety precaution, mandates UPD officers to avoid conducting chases within city limits. Should other agencies initiate a chase through town, UPD’s role is to assist in blocking off side roads to prevent a crash involving residents.
Between 2020 and 2023, Kinney County Sheriff’s Office-initiated high speed chases climbed from 61 to 260, a 326-percent increase in the span of three years. Smuggling arrests in Kinney County also increased notably, moving from 1,006 to 3,192 between 2021 and 2022 alone.
Matt Benacci of the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office said he had seen two or three fatalities from smuggling pursuits in recent years but that the department didn’t have exact numbers for injuries or deaths.
“By and large, we haven’t had many,” he said. “Serious injuries have also been fairly light, considering the volume of pursuits … I can only think of a couple incidents that required helicopters.”
The Kinney County Sheriff’s Office didn’t have 2023 data for felony arrests, migrant apprehensions or human smuggling arrests.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection pursuits in the Del Rio Sector peaked between October 2022 and September 2023, according to its data. It participated in 44 chases during that time frame and 15 in the previous 12 months. The agency participated in six pursuits in the first two months of the 2024 fiscal year, records show.
The Del Rio Sector covers 55,063 square miles that reach 300 miles into Texas from the U.S. Mexico border and includes 47 counties in Southwest Texas.
Near miss downtown
Amy’s Attic has seen gradual repair since the May 2023 crash. They replaced the shattered window in November, and they are having replicas made to match the 100-year-old green tiles.
Carnes said they were fortunate to have insurance to cover the damage and a contractor in the family.
She said the experience has led to an increased awareness of her surroundings, and she monitors customers and children so that they do not linger in the window.
Pete Luna|Leader-News
Wreckage litters the intersection of Nopal and North Getty Streets after a crash between a Honda car and a Ford pickup truck. The Honda’s driver ran a red light while fleeing law enforcement on May 21, 2023, and hit the truck, pushing it into Amy’s Attic in the 100 block of North Getty Street.
Crashes like the one that damaged Amy’s Attic have happened multiple times in Uvalde’s downtown.
These vehicle pursuits pose an increased danger to bystanders – but that hasn’t stopped law enforcement agencies from chasing cars at high rates of speed into this area. At least three human-smuggling related accidents have occurred in the center of town in the last 16 months.
This area is a popular gathering place for the community. On any given day, people are milling the town plaza, paying respects to the victims of the May 24, 2022, tragedy at Robb Elementary by visiting the memorial at the plaza or crossing the street to see the Healing Uvalde portrait murals.
The square is also a gathering place for events. The Uvalde Honey Festival is staged in this area, as are Party on the Plaza nights. There’s also Four Square Friday, where downtown businesses provide live music, refreshments, and extended hours to beckon shoppers.
Along with holiday and weekend activities, the downtown area is also home to two private schools, Uvalde Classical Academy and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church and School. Flores Elementary is further north on Getty, but it is a heavily trafficked area.
Legislation
Area ranches and landowners are also feeling the effect of human smuggling wrecks, which when executed outside city limits, often result in damage to property fence lines.
Spurred by continued property damage from high speed pursuits and crashes, State Rep. Tracy O. King sponsored HB 73 during the 88th Legislative session. The law, which passed in June of 2023, is intended provide liability protections for farmers, ranchers and other landowners.
Crashes continue
On April 4, 2023, another wreck occurred in the center of town when the driver of a GMC Yukon fled from a traffic stop on State Highway 55, drove rapidly up North Getty Street, ran the red light at the busy intersection, and caused a four-vehicle wreck. The intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and U.S. Highway 83 shut down for more than an hour, and Uvalde City Hall and area schools locked down due to the incident.
UPD was pursuing the vehicle when DPS intercepted the pursuit in the 900 block of North Getty Street. DPS spokesman Sgt. Rene Cordova said troopers were about third in line when UPD officers fell back and let DPS take the lead, seconds before the Yukon blew through the red light and caused the wreck.
On May 2, 2023, just days before the wreck at Amy’s Attic, a 2019 Nissan Rogue evading law enforcement crashed into a pole at the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and Highway 83 near the city hall building. UPD said they were not pursuing the vehicle at the time, but they had witnessed a bailout at 529 W. Main St.
A major crash at the same intersection in September of 2022 resulted in two deaths and numerous injuries when a 17-year-old Austin driver fleeing in a Toyota Tacoma collided with an 18-wheeler. Eight people riding in the Toyota truck bed were injured, as was the driver of a separate pickup truck in the four-vehicle wreck.
