Texas Sheriff Under Investigation For Allegedly Seizing Money From Undocumented Immigrants

A Texas Sherrif is under investigation after being accused of ordering his deputies to seize cash and vehicles from undocumented immigrants during traffic stops, even if they were not stopped for a crime.

Officials with the Texas Rangers and the Texas Attorneys General’s Office raided four locations connected to Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson‘s office last month.

According to search warrants obtained by the Texas Tribune, he recently acknowledged to the Texas Rangers that money was regularly seized from undocumented immigrants by deputies during traffic stops before people were handed over to U.S border patrol agents.

Records show that Ricardo Guajardo, the Texas Ranger investigating the case, is accusing Johnson of felony theft by a public servant and abuse of official capacity. Guajardo wrote that the regular seizures of cash, as well as one instance involving the seizing of a pickup truck, violated the state’s civil asset forfeiture laws.

“Seizing currency from undocumented immigrants and the driver has been standard operating procedure for as long as he has been employed by the Real County Sherriff’s Office,” Guajardo wrote in the warrant requests.

Guajardo began investigating Johnson in October after discussions with the attorney’s general office, the warrant said, focusing on two traffic stops.

Body camera footage on a May 2021 traffic stop taken by a sheriff’s deputy from a neighboring county showed Johnson directing his deputies to seize money and a truck from undocumented immigrants. Guajardo detailed that the seized money was to be filed as abandoned cash and deposited into Real County general fund. Johnson said he would try to find the truck’s registered owners, but after 30 days, the vehicle would also be considered abandoned.

During another traffic stop in October, more than $2,700 in cash taken from three immigrants’ wallets was said to be marketed as evidence while waiting to see if the human smuggling charges against the driver would stick, according to records. The other two men were referred to as Border Patrol, where they asked what had happened to the money in their wallets. Guajardo said the seizing deputy couldn’t say under what authority the money was taken, just that Johnson told him to take it.

When Guajardo questioned Johnson about the October seizure, the sheriff said no legal forfeiture paperwork was filed in money seizures; but that money and vehicles were being held as evidence due to trafficking crimes.

Before then, Guajardo wrote that Johnson said: “his office was seizing all currency to include currency in possession of undocumented immigrants before being released to the custody of the United States Border Patrol.”

Johnson told the Tribune that he and county attorneys are reviewing the recently released affidavit. Last month, the Sherrif initially said that he wasn’t sure what prompted the investigation.

“Especially in the last year, I have taken a strong stand against human smuggling, drug smuggling, and illegal alien traffic in our community and will continue to do so, “Johnson wrote on Facebook. “We really don’t know who or what prompted the investigation by the Ranger Service and Office of Attorney General, but neither I nor my officers have been arrested, and we will continue to faithfully serve as your Sheriff’s Office day in and day out.”

According to The Washington Post, Ericka Miller, press secretary for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed that the Texas Rangers and attorney general’s office “conducted search warrants at the Real County Sherriff’s Office” last month.

It is unclear if any charges have been or will be filed against Johnson. State attorneys say if charges are brought against the sheriff, and he is convicted of theft by a public servant, a third-degree felony in Texas, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of almost $10,000.