Parts of Texas and Mexico are so close that you may accidentally end up in another country if you miss an exit or don’t pay attention to the Google Maps address. At least, that’s what happened to this El Paso woman.
In a viral video, Trinity Jackson (@thetrinityjackson) explains that she went out to El Paso two weeks ago to stay with her mom because she needed some time away from Houston, where she normally lives.
She dropped her mom off at the airport the day she made the TikTok and got a text from her reminding Jackson about the zip ties she needed to get from Home Depot (we never do find out what Jackson needed zip ties for).
Jackson searches up the closest Home Depot, which is about an 11-minute drive away, and heads over. Little did she know she was about to be in for a nerve-wracking adventure.
She’s driving with her music on and her dogs in the back seat when she suddenly sees a sign, “Port of Juarez,” a land port connecting El Paso and Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.
“Mind you, at this point, I’m already way too close to the sign to put two and two together, and I realize I am now exiting America and heading to Mexico,” Jackson said.
Jackson looks around for a place where she can pull off and turn around back into the United States.
“I wanna stay in America, I don’t want to leave America, alright? I love Team USA,” Jackson says.
With nowhere else to go but straight, Jackson ends up at Border Patrol. She calls over one of the Border Patrol agents to help her out of the situation, but to her dismay, he only speaks Spanish, and she only speaks English, so they have to communicate over Google Translate.
She explains that she ended up in Mexico by accident. “This is missed exit to the extreme,” she says.
They ask for a valid vehicle registration, and while Jackson just renewed it, the paper confirming this is nowhere to be found. The border agent sees Jackson is visibly flustered and “clueless.” Given that she had other documents on her, including her passport and driver’s license, he agreed to help her. He tells her to just tell the next agent that she came into the country by accident.
As she approaches the front of the line into Mexico, her heart is beating like in a cartoon. Dogs circle her car and agents look under the vehicle with mirrors, while cameras are fixed on her and her car.
@thetrinityjackson A mistake you only make once for sure
♬ original sound – Trin
While Jackson is worried she’s going to be stuck in a foreign country, the next agent simply tells her she’s good to reenter the U.S. and that next time, she should pull over and get out of the car to explain the situation, and they’ll stop traffic so she can turn around.
“Whole time in my head, one things for sure, two things for sure, this is never happening again. This is a mistake you make once. Once,” Jackson says.
And if you were wondering, Jackson never did make it to a Home Depot that day.
“I don’t care about the zip ties. The zip ties will be there tomorrow. I’m gonna crotchet, drink some wine, and go to bed in America,” Jackson concludes.
In a follow-up video, Jackson explains that she wasn’t scared to be in Mexico. In fact, she’d walked over earlier that day with her mom since walking through the border is easier than driving through. Her worry was over the fact that she didn’t intend to go and was unprepared regarding what she needed to legally go in with her car and dogs.
@thetrinityjackson Replying to @LlamaYess ♬ original sound – Trin
The initial video is approaching a half million views and has well over 1,200 comments as of Thursday morning.
Several people shared their own experiences or how they would have handled the situation.
“I went to El Paso once and T-Mobile texted me “welcome to Mexico” while I was driving ….. I panicked so bad,” a top comment read.
“I’m driving straight home, music OFF, two hands on the wheel,” a person wrote.
“It happened to me! Visiting El Paso with 4 kids missed one exist. Ended up in Mexico no where to turn around. I was in tears,” another shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Jackson for comment via email.