Former warden arrested for shooting migrants in string of anti-immigrant violence in Texas

Two migrants were shot, one of them fatally, in Hudspeth County in far West Texas on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“The preliminary investigation shows that a truck with two men inside pulled over and shot at a group of illegal immigrants standing alongside the road getting water,” said DPS Lieutenant Elizabeth Carter.

Carter said two men were arrested in Sierra Blanca Thursday in connection with the shooting.

TPR confirmed the identity of the men, Mike and Mark Sheppard. The brothers were charged with manslaughter and booked in the El Paso County Jail without bond.

Until this week, Mike Sheppard was a jail warden for the West Texas Detention Center in Sierra Blanca — a privately owned detention facility that used to contract with the federal government to detain migrants. A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that facility hasn't held detainees in federal custody since 2019.

Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections confirmed to TPR that Mike Sheppard no longer works with the company.