Border Patrol Employee Arrested in Minnesota After Being Found Passed Out in Car and ‘Covered in Vomit’

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Minnesota state police arrested a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol employee in St. Paul upon finding the man slumped over his steering wheel while “covered in vomit.”

At 3:25 a.m. on Tuesday, a Minnesota state trooper found 31-year-old Alfredo Mancillas Jr. of Corpus Christi, Texas, passed out at the wheel in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood, according to charges filed by the St. Paul City Attorney’s Office.

The story was first reported by Sahan Journal, a nonprofit news organization in Minnesota.

Police say Mancillas failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer test, after which he was arrested and booked at the Ramsey County jail. He has been charged with 3rd degree and 4th degree driving while impaired.

Sahan Journal asked the Department of Homeland Security what role Mancillas serves in Border Patrol, but the department declined to answer.

“CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe,” a DHS spokesperson told the Journal via email.

The arrest comes amid a surge of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities area. About 3,000 Border Patrol agents and agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been deployed to the region in recent weeks. On Saturday, Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, 37, who had been filming them in public. Video of the killing showed an agent removing a firearm from Pretti’s waistband before agents shot him in the back several times. Pretti had a permit to carry the weapon. The killing came two weeks after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, 37, as she attempted to drive away from agents.

The Pretti killing, in particular, has prompted a wave of backlash that resulted in the ouster of Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also drawn scrutiny, and she reportedly told an associate that “everything” she has done has been at the direction of President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

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