Thursday, September 8, 2022 The wall along the U.S.- Mexico border near Sasabay, Arizona ended abruptly as it crossed the bottom of the Barbokivari Mountains. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)
As part of a larger force involved in the program, two soldiers were sentenced to jail after admitting illegally smuggling Mexican nationals into the United States.
22-year-old Emmanuel Oppongagyare and 19-year-old Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie were sentenced to 21 and 13 months in prison on September 20, respectively. Oppongagyare is a soldier in the Pennsylvania National Guard, while Saint-Joie is an active soldier. Both are stationed in Fort Hood, Texas.
Two people were stopped at a border checkpoint in Hebronville, Texas, when authorities found two undocumented immigrants in the trunk of their car. Both soldiers were wearing their military uniforms.
According to the Justice Department, the two were recruited to smuggle immigrants from McAllen, a border town in Texas to San Antonio , a 240-mile drive. Both received $100 in gas when they initially picked up the two Mexican nationals at the border in June 2021, but it is unclear how much they will receive when the work is completed.
Oppongagyare and Saint-Joie were instructed to wear uniforms during smuggling to avoid cross-examination by authorities. According to court records, recruiters told the couple that “the same strategy worked in previous smuggling incidents.”
The two military men were hired by 20-year-old Isaiah Gore, who pleaded guilty to human smuggling in December 2021, along with Denelio Williams, 22 and Avory Palmer, 21. Gore was sentenced to 30 months in prison and Williams was sentenced to 24 months in prison. Palmer is waiting for the sentencing. All three are Texas soldiers.
The troops serving their sentences are usually retired.
For more than a year, the military has stationed in large numbers on the U.S.-Mexico border. Most of these units come from approximately 5,000 soldiers from the Texas National Guard, part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s beleaguered Operation Lone Star mission that has quietly shrunk in recent months.
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