A woman returning to the United States from Mexico was detained at the Presidio port of entry and spent about a day in the Presidio County Jail after authorities apparently confused her with another person wanted in Hidalgo County, according to a family member’s account posted on social media.
The family member said the group was returning through the Presidio-Ojinaga port of entry around 12:30 p.m. on July 25 when federal officers collected their passports during the routine inspection process. According to the account, an officer asked the woman for her Social Security number before directing the vehicle to a secondary inspection area.
The family said officers later took the woman’s driver’s license and questioned her again about her identifying information. After a period of waiting, the woman was taken to another area of the facility.
About 10 to 20 minutes later, the family member said, the woman emerged in restraints and was turned over to a Presidio County officer.
According to the family’s account, they were told the woman was wanted in connection with a hit-and-run case in Hidalgo County. The family said the woman had never been to Hidalgo County and immediately questioned whether authorities had the correct person.
The woman was taken to the Presidio County Jail in Marfa, where the family said they were initially told she would appear before a judge. The family later was told she had been denied bond and could remain in custody for as long as 10 days while awaiting transportation to Hidalgo County.
The family said it was not until later that evening that they learned the apparent source of the problem.
According to the social media post, the person named in the Hidalgo County case had the same first and last name and the same date of birth as the detained woman but a different middle name.
The family said the woman had provided authorities with her passport, driver’s license, full Social Security number and other identifying information before she was jailed.
She was released around noon the following day, according to the account, after spending approximately 24 hours in custody.
The family described the experience as traumatic and questioned how the woman could have been arrested and jailed despite authorities having multiple forms of identification available to distinguish her from the person actually sought.
The incident raises questions about the procedures used to verify the identities of people flagged by law enforcement databases, particularly before a person is transferred from federal custody to a county jail on an out-of-county warrant.
The family’s account has circulated on social media, where relatives are calling for answers from federal authorities as well as officials in Presidio and Hidalgo counties.
The account has not independently established which agency generated the warrant match, what identifying information was contained in the warrant, what steps officers took to confirm the woman’s identity or exactly how authorities discovered the apparent error.
Those details would be critical to determining how a traveler carrying government-issued identification could allegedly be mistaken for another person, placed in restraints and held in jail for roughly a day before being released.
