Border Clash Erupts in Texas: One Agent Injured as Smugglers Open Fire Near Rio Grande

Eagle Pass, United States— Eagle Pass agents hit the ground running before dawn Thursday after a smuggling load turned into a gunfight along the Rio Grande, leaving one Border Patrol agent with a leg wound and a truck full of migrants abandoned in the brush.

The encounter started at 4:22 a.m. near Normandy, a known crossing corridor west of Eagle Pass. A green Ford F-250 with no plates was spotted idling without lights on the Mexican side, then punched across shallow water. Agents moved to block it on US soil. Instead of stopping, the driver gunned the engine and aimed straight for a parked patrol vehicle.

According to Border Patrol's Del Rio Sector, two men jumped from the bed of the truck and fired at least four rounds from a handgun. One round struck an agent in the calf. Another round shattered the passenger window of the patrol truck. The agent returned fire but did not hit the suspects, officials said. The wounded agent was dragged behind cover by his partner.

The truck stalled in mud about 60 yards from the river. Six migrants, all adult males from Honduras and Guatemala, were found crouched inside and taken into custody. The driver and the shooter fled back toward the river on foot. A drone unit tracked heat signatures crossing back into Mexico within minutes. No arrests of the smugglers were made on the US side.

The injured agent, a 9-year veteran, was airlifted to Fort Duncan Medical Center. Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Danley said the injury was not life-threatening. "Our agent was doing what we do every night, trying to stop a smuggling vehicle. They chose to fight instead of flee," Danley said in a statement Thursday morning.

Fox News reported the vehicle had been reported stolen from Uvalde County three days earlier and was fitted with a false compartment in the bed. AP noted that assaults on Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector are up sharply this fiscal year, with 47 reported incidents compared to 29 last year.

Agents seized a .45 caliber pistol dropped near the riverbank, along with two loaded magazines. The migrants told investigators they had each paid $9,000 to be taken to San Antonio. They are being processed as witnesses and for removal proceedings.

The Texas Department of Public Safety closed Farm Road 1021 for four hours while investigators mapped shell casings and tire tracks. K-9 units searched both sides of the brush line until 8 a.m. No additional weapons were found.

Federal authorities have opened a joint investigation with the FBI for assault on a federal officer. The sector has shifted additional night vision and air support to the Normandy area.