Horse-mounted Texas Department of Public Safety officers captured a previously deported illegal alien child predator close to the border.

In a statement Tuesday, the state agency said officers from its Border Mounted Patrol Unit made “multiple” illegal immigrant apprehensions on New Year’s Day as part of an effort called Operation Lone Star.

The agency said the operation took place in Maverick County along the U.S. border with Mexico, just south of the town of Del Rio, Texas.

Among those arrested by Texas DPS officers was Marcio Steven Izaguirre, a 41-year-old Honduran illegal alien and child predator, according to the agency. DPS shared body camera video of the arrest in which horse-riding troopers discovered Izaguirre hiding in thick desert brush.

VIDEO SHOWS 23 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOUND HIDDEN IN TRUCK CAB DURING TENSE TRAFFIC STOP: POLICE

The video shows two mounted troopers riding quickly through rocky desert terrain and eventually discovering Izaguirre. The officers shouted commands for Izaguirre to exit the brush and handcuffed him and led him away in front of their horses.

The agency said it was alerted to the illegal’s presence by a drawbridge camera set off on a private ranch around 10:30 a.m. New Year’s Day.

DPS said, through further investigation, troopers learned that Izaguirre was a previously deported felon with multiple deportations dating back to 2004. The agency said Izaguirre also has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions from 2008 for furnishing alcohol to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child molestation out of Cobb County, Georgia.

TWO ARRESTED AFTER DOZENS OF GUNS, INCLUDING ‘COP-KILLER’ MODEL, FOUND IN SPARE TIRE AT SOUTHERN BORDER: DPS

The agency said it has since referred Izaguirre to U.S. Border Patrol.

Lt. Chris Olivarez, a Texas DPS spokesperson, said in an X post Jan. 1 that mounted officers, along with Border Patrol and aided by K-9 “Bona,” apprehended five illegal immigrants on New Year’s Day.

Olivarez said the operation prevented gotaways and was a way of “keeping Texas safe.”

TEXAS WOMAN TRIES TO FLEE TO MEXICO ACROSS RIO GRANDE WITH INFANT AFTER HUMAN SMUGGLING BUST, AUTHORITIES SAY

Texas makes up well over half of the U.S. border with Mexico, around 1,254 miles. It is the only southern border state to explicitly ban sanctuary jurisdictions. Texas also requires state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Texas law also mandates that local sheriffs cooperate with federal immigration enforcement by seeking to enter federal 287(g) agreements under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.

The trial of a former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer accused of not doing more to save lives in the 2022 shooting that left 21 dead was halted after a key witness reportedly changed her testimony. 

Adrian Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment following the attack at Robb Elementary. He could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s convicted, prosecutors said.   

Former teacher Stephanie Hale testified on Tuesday that she saw the shooter on the south side of the campus, the same area where Gonzales was located, according to Texas Public Radio. 

However, defense attorneys objected, arguing her testimony was different compared to statements Hale made to a Texas Ranger during a 2022 investigation when she placed the shooter closer to Gonzales than previously indicated, the outlet added. 

TRIAL UNDERWAY FOR FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF SLOW RESPONSE TO SHOOTING

The jury in the trial was then dismissed until Thursday as attorneys are preparing arguments on motions related to Hale’s testimony, the report said. The judge in the case is expected to hear those arguments on Wednesday, and the defense has raised the possibility of a mistrial, Texas Public Radio also reported. 

Gonzales, who was among the first to respond to the attack, arrived while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. The officer allegedly did not make a move, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial.  

The officer only went inside Robb Elementary minutes later “after the damage had been done,” Turner said. 

FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF, OFFICER INDICTED OVER RESPONSE TO ELEMENTARY MASS SHOOTING

“When you hear gunshots, you go to the gunfire,” Turner added, noting that Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training. 

An indictment accused Gonzales of putting children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his training. The allegations also said he did not go toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told the shooter’s location. 

Gonzales’ attorneys disputed accusations that he did nothing at what they called a chaotic scene, saying that he helped evacuate children as other police arrived.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” defense attorney Nico LaHood said on Tuesday. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Tano Tijerina in Texas’ 28th Congressional District race after criticizing Rep. Henry Cuellar for running again as a Democrat following a presidential pardon.

“I don’t know why, but the fact that Henry Cuellar would be running against Donald J. Trump, and the Republican Party, seems to be a great act of disloyalty and, perhaps more importantly, the act of a fool who would immediately go back to a Political Party, the Radical Left Democrats, whose views are different from his, but not nearly good or strong enough to be a true Republican,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in part.

The president said if he had to do it again, he would still pardon Cuellar, arguing the prosecution against him was politically motivated, but criticized his decision to run for re-election.

“Henry should not be allowed to serve in Congress again,” Trump added before endorsing Tijerina, a judge in Webb County, Texas, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

HOUSE DEM PARDONED BY TRUMP REVEALS WHETHER HE WILL SWITCH POLITICAL PARTIES

“Tano’s views are stronger, better, and far less tainted than Henry’s, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Representative from Texas’ 28th Congressional District — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” said Trump.

The commander in chief pardoned Cuellar in December after he was indicted by the Justice Department in May 2024 on charges alleging he accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company and a Mexican bank in exchange for using his office to influence U.S. foreign policy. 

ABBOTT ORDERS COMPREHENSIVE FRAUD PROBE INTO TEXAS CHILD CARE FUNDING AFTER MINNESOTA SCANDAL

Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were facing multiple counts, including bribery, money laundering and unlawful foreign influence.

After Trump granted him clemency, the congressman thanked the president for what he called his “tremendous leadership,” and said the decision allowed South Texas to move forward.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on,” Cuellar wrote on X.

Cuellar won re-election in November 2024 and has been in Congress since 2005.