Increasing Number of Illegal Aliens Evading Border Patrol; 42,000 in April
By Charlotte Cuthbertson May 5, 2021 Updated: May 6, 2021
McALLEN, Texas—With Border Patrol agents overwhelmed by family groups and unaccompanied minors, more illegal aliens are escaping into the interior of the United States and fewer drugs are being seized.
During April, more than 177,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by Border Patrol, according to preliminary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers, as provided to Jaeson Jones, former captain in the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A further 42,620 illegal aliens escaped arrest by Border Patrol, which are known as “gotaways.”
During February and March, the gotaway number was around 30,000 per month, or 1,000 per day. That’s now up to almost 1,400 per day.
“What gotaway numbers really signify is the level of infiltration coming into the country that’s getting past CBP at the border,” Jones told The Epoch Times.
The gotaway number is generally considered a conservative amount, as many more are believed to have slipped through undetected. The number is calculated from agents submitting information on anyone they observed getting away, or they noticed clues (including tracks or debris) signifying that someone has gotten through, or from cameras or sensors.
The gotaway numbers don’t reflect the number of illegal border-crossers who run back to Mexico if they’re chased—those are counted separately as “turnbacks,” and for April, that number was around 14,500. Most likely, those people will continue to try until they get through.
The increasing gotaway number reflects Border Patrol’s focus being forced into humanitarian care as single males and females slip through the gaps.
“But it also signifies something else and that is that more drugs are also flowing into the country. If you can’t catch the people, you can’t catch the dope either,” Jones said.
The number of gotaways is being reflected in the issues that counties north of the border are currently facing.
At least five Texas counties have issued declarations of local disaster, while one school district is warning its parents to “please be watchful of your children as they are playing outside, walking home from school, or generally out of the house.”
Landowners and ranchers dozens of miles north of the border have long dealt with illegal aliens traversing their land as they try to evade Border Patrol highway checkpoints and law enforcement. They commonly leave gates open, which mixes stock; destroy fences and gates; light fires; break into properties; and steal valuables.
But today’s human smugglers and illegal aliens evading capture are different. The smugglers are armed, and the illegal aliens are often convicted criminals.
While the Biden administration has called the unprecedented surge in numbers a “challenge,” neither the president nor the vice president has visited the border.
On April 25, when a reporter asked Vice President Kamala Harris why she hasn’t visited the southern border, she replied, “I’m not going to play political games.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on May 4, “After coming into office, our administration immediately jumped into action to address the influx of migrants at the border—something that began during and was exacerbated by the Trump administration.”
However, the number of total apprehensions by Border Patrol this April (177,431) is 10 times the apprehensions from April 2020, when Border Patrol caught 17,106 people. In 2019, during the previous crisis, the number was 109,415.
Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo Follow Charlotte on Parler: @charlottecuthbo
Yet to hear them tell it, "Unaccompanied juveniles in CBP custody down 75%" but don't mention the fact that HHS has built 5 more tents on the same property as the (two) CBP tents and most of the 75% now reside in the 5 neighboring (HHS) tents.
A Texas Democrat who has been critical of the White House’s immigration policies said that recent photos from Border Patrol facilities in southern Texas are misleading.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) suggested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which operates the Border Patrol facilities, is falsely creating the impression that a site in Donna, Texas, is being emptied of unaccompanied children. He said the youths have been simply moved to a nearby facility that’s operated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“All they’re doing is they’re moving kids from one tent to the other tent and saying, ‘Oh, they’re not in the Border Patrol [custody],’” Cuellar told Border Report.
The DHS says the children are in HHS custody but declined to disclose the location, according to Border Report. Officials at DHS didn’t immediately respond to The Epoch Times for comment.
The agency said the recent photos “demonstrate the tremendous progress that DHS and its partners have made to safely and efficiently transfer these children out of CBP custody and into the care of HHS.”
“The amount of time children spend in [Border Patrol] custody is down 75 percent, from 131 hours at the end of March to under 30 hours now,” Psaki told reporters this week.
In March, immigration agents apprehended over 172,000 individuals seeking to illegally enter the United States. According to the latest report by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 351,800 encounters were made in the first three months of 2021, compared to 107,700 during the same period in 2020.
Republicans, including Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, have said President Joe Biden is sending mixed messages on immigration and have called on the president to reinstate Trump-era policies to stem the tide of illegal migration into the United States.
“If you want to stop the disaster that’s unfolding here and will only get worse in the coming months, President Biden, you should declare a national emergency and deploy the vast powers of your administration to stop what’s happening here,” Ducey said during a news conference last week in Yuma, Arizona.
Since taking office, Biden has halted the construction of the border wall, ended the Migrant Protection Protocols, and limited Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement priorities. Last month, the Department of Defense, meanwhile, canceled wall projects that were financed with funds that were initially allocated for the military.
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If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Texas Ranchers Live in Fear as Encounters With Illegal Aliens Increase
'They're banging on the walls, everything,' one rancher’s wife said in a frantic phone call earlier this year
By Charlotte Cuthbertson May 25, 2021 Updated: May 25, 2021
KINNEY COUNTY, Texas—Living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere is the epitome of the American dream for many Texans. They keep to themselves, help their neighbors, and work hard.
But in the past few months, ranchers have been getting unwelcome visitors who destroy their property, steal their vehicles, and scare their families.
They’re the illegal immigrants, usually adult males who have evaded Border Patrol and are heading to a large city where it’s easier to disappear.
Cole Hill, his wife, and their three children, ages 9, 7, and 5, live on a ranch in Kinney County, about 35 miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border. The property also flanks a Border Patrol highway checkpoint, and those who want to evade capture tend to walk a wide berth around it.
Hill said he’s dealt with illegal aliens traversing his land for years, but only around 25 people a year, on average; sometimes, months would go by with no activity.
“I’m going on about six weeks straight now with illegal [aliens] on my property on a daily basis, or multiple groups a day,” he said during a local meeting on May 22.
His house is set “way back in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “We could have a full-blown gunfight on our front porch, and nobody would know about it.”
Hill’s first encounter with illegal aliens this year took place on Jan. 20, when his dog alerted him to a man on the front porch dressed head-to-toe in camouflage clothing.
“It obviously alarmed me. I’ve had plenty of encounters with illegal aliens over the past 10 or more years, but I’ve never had one that close to the house,” Hill said. “I stopped him. I told him to backtrack and get away.”
He also called Border Patrol but doesn’t know whether they caught the intruder.
“That was just kind of the beginning of this giant snowball that’s occurring,” he said.
“I keep getting told that this isn’t a new problem that we’re dealing with. Obviously, we all know illegal immigration has been going on forever. But to me, in my setting, at my house, at our ranch, this is certainly a new problem.”
The next encounter happened about three weeks later, when Hill and his oldest son were working out on the ranch and his wife called to tell him that a group of illegal immigrants had surrounded the house.
“They’re looking into windows, they’re at the back door, they’re at the front door, they’re banging on the walls, everything,” Hill’s wife told him.
He raced home and found one man on the front porch, while the rest had hidden as his truck approached.
“I made it pretty quickly to the individual on our front porch, I got him off the porch, and I promptly escorted him out of the yard,” Hill said. He eventually cleared the rest of the group out of his garage and sent them away.
Again, he called Border Patrol, but it took agents more than an hour to get there.
“I live about 12 miles from the checkpoint. On a good day, they can be at my house in about 15 minutes,” Hill said.
“I hate to think of what five men could do if they wanted to do harm to my family and they could get into my house as quick as they possibly could have.”
After that encounter, the Hills kept their normally free-range kids closer to home, unless they were outside with them.
“After that happened, we don’t even want our kids playing outside in the yard anymore,” Hill said. He kept the kids mostly in the house for a few weeks, but let them run loose as he tackled some yard work one Saturday.
“I didn’t get halfway done mowing my front yard and the kids are all playing in the backyard … and sure enough, here comes five more dudes … slipping out of the brush, and they’re hitting a jog on the way to my house, coming straight to my house.
“I shut the mower down, I holler for the kids to get inside, I start yelling at these guys to stay back, I run inside and grab a firearm, and as soon as I came back out, they stopped, they changed their course and they took off.”
Hill again called Border Patrol, but it was more than an hour before they responded.
“Yesterday morning was the fifth group that I’ve had at my house since January 20 this year—and this was at 3:30 in the morning,” he said at a local meeting on May 22.
Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II said Border Patrol is stretched thin.
“We are currently apprehending an average of over 900 migrants during this seven-day period in the Del Rio Sector,” Skero told The Epoch Times via email.
“Due to this 433 percent increase in apprehensions over last fiscal year to date, agents are frequently occupied with transport, processing, and detention duties.
“This has absolutely impacted our ability to respond quickly to illegal activity on private property. We are doing the best we can and will respond to every call prioritizing emergency situations.”
Record Numbers
Kinney County, with a population of 3,400, shares just 16 miles of the international border with Mexico, but it’s on a direct smuggling route from the Del Rio area to San Antonio. On April 21, it was the first of 28 Texas counties to declare a local disaster over the border crisis.
The county sits within the Del Rio Border Patrol sector, which is experiencing record levels of illegal alien apprehensions.
Over four days starting on May 20, Del Rio Border Patrol apprehended more illegal border-crossers than the population of Kinney County. On May 20, May 21, and May 23, agents apprehended more than 1,000 illegal aliens each day in the sector, according to Customs and Border Protection.
Law enforcement officials told The Epoch Times that people are currently paying Mexican smuggling groups $2,200 per person to cross the river into the United States. That’s $2.2 million per 1,000 that cross.
The number of those who evade Border Patrol is also increasing. More than 42,000 illegal aliens evaded capture along the whole southern border in April.
“We don’t know who they are, where they’re from, or what their intentions are,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said.
On top of those that Border Patrol knows have evaded arrest, “it’s very fair to say that there’s a large number of people that are able to get away that we don’t even detect,” Judd said.
Hill said he’s had plenty more encounters with illegal aliens while he’s out on the ranch working alone.
“I do everything that I can to try to subdue them or hold them down for Border Patrol,” he said, but it’s getting more difficult.
“Sure, there’s probably some good apples in there as well. But I don’t think the good apples are 35 miles off the river trying to evade every law enforcement they can as aggressively as they are.”
The damage to his property is also increasing. In the past few months, he’s had his perimeter fence cut seven times, most of the time from top to bottom, and in three cases, an entire section was pulled out.
Hill’s water troughs and pipes are also getting damaged.
“Next thing you know, I got 100 head of cows that are out of water just like that. And that can turn into a pretty terrible crisis in itself,” Hill said.
He blames the Biden administration for the border surge and the spillover impact it’s having on Texans. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
“I feel like there’s only two ways that this problem is going to get solved. And it’s either going to be ‘We the People’ or the people up top. I sure don’t like to think about ‘We the People’ taking care of it, but, who knows,” he said.
“I do know that we need to do everything that we can and contact our elected officials and try and do this the right way.” Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo Follow Charlotte on Parler: @charlottecuthbo
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If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Oh my! Whodathunkit? A Democrat supporting her 2nd Amendment rights.
Congress California Democrat Rep. Says She Sleeps With Gun Next to Bed After Death Threats
By Jack Phillips May 30, 2021 Updated: May 30, 2021
A Democrat representative from California said she now sleeps with a gun next to her bed after receiving death threats following comments she made that were critical of the governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), who was born in Guatemala and came to the United States as a child, said that people have staked out her house after she lambasted the three Central American countries’ governments for official corruption and not doing enough to help their citizens.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week, the California lawmaker said El Salvador President Nayib Bukele created a campaign to flood her district with calls and harass her staffers. Her social media pages may have also been targeted, with supporters of Bukele allegedly sending her hateful images, negative messages, and death threats, Torres said, adding that she now sleeps with a gun nearby.
“I never thought it would get to this point, but I have to protect myself in my home,” Torres said, according to Fox Los Angeles.
On March 31, she wrote a critical comment on Twitter about the governments of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala—collectively known as the “Northern Triangle”—stating their policies’ are forcing citizens to migrate.
“This is a great shame to the governments of #Guatemala#Honduras#ElSalvador your compatriots deserve governments that are truly committed to fighting corruption and drug trafficking!” Torres wrote on March 31, according to a Spanish-to-English translation while linking to a story about smugglers who dropped a 3-year-old and 5-year-old child from the U.S.–Mexico border wall.
It drew a response from Bukele, who suggested Torres got her facts wrong.
“Look ma’am, did you read that the children are from ECUADOR and not from EL SALVADOR? In addition, this occurred on the border of Mexico with the United States. What does El Salvador have to do with this? You should use a portion of your financier’s check to buy glasses,” Bukele responded a day later, according to a translation.
Torres panned Bukele’s policies on that same day, likening him to “narcissistic dictators,” linking to an article about migrants from El Salvador having drowned in Mexico.
Neither Torres’s office nor the El Salvador’s embassy in Washington D.C. responded to a request for comment by press time.
The Biden administration has come under bipartisan fire in recent weeks for what critics have said is a failure to handle the border crisis.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents witnessed more than 178,000 attempted illegal crossings in April. A wave of unaccompanied children attempting to cross the border has prompted the administration to open up new Border Patrol and Department of Health and Human Services facilities to house them.
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If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Human Smuggling Leading to Pursuits, Bailouts, Crashes, School Lockdowns
By Charlotte Cuthbertson June 2, 2021 Updated: June 3, 2021
Uvale, Texas—A smuggler traveling at 140 mph races through town and crashes through a building in Uvalde, Texas. Another one drives onto a softball field in Crystal City, with children playing nearby.
In Del Rio, eight illegal aliens die after crashing head-on into another vehicle during a pursuit. Further east, in Lavaca County, a pickup truck carrying 18 to 20 illegal aliens crashes into a tree and bursts into flames.
In Kinney County, a smuggler fires an AK-47 out the vehicle window while fleeing from law enforcement, then passes the weapon to an illegal alien in the backseat to reload.
Many of the vehicles that smugglers are using to transport illegal aliens are stolen, and the unsuspecting owners won’t get them back—they’ve been used in the commission of a crime.
If illegal aliens make it past Border Patrol at the U.S.–Mexico border, their goal is to get north to a large city as quickly as possible.
The average number of illegal aliens that Border Patrol detects evading capture along the southern border is about 1,000 per day. The number of those who go undetected is impossible to estimate.
While Uvalde sits about 65 miles north of the border, many roads converge in the town and high-speed chases with vehicles loaded with illegal immigrants have become a daily occurrence. And lured by the promise of quick cash, many U.S. citizens are providing transportation.
“Chases—that’s something that we’ve never seen,” Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco told The Epoch Times.
“It’s nonstop. Day after day, from sunup to sundown. Our deputies, our state troopers, our police officers, they’re just frustrated, they’re tired.”
Today’s illegal aliens are more violent than in previous years and will fight with law enforcement, Nolasco said. His deputies are also finding weapons in most of the smuggling vehicles they stop.
“And some of these traffickers have been found with 100-round drums [of ammunition] on their weapons,” he said.
“There’s always been a problem with [illegal] immigration, but nothing like this. We’re like a welcome mat. They’re going to come in here and scrape the mud off on us and then they start going up to the bigger cities. And then, they can blend in and you won’t have access to them.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed more state troopers to the border region in March, and Nolasco said it has helped, although it also has created a bottleneck in his jail.
“It’s getting to the point that it’s filling up my jail, so that’s becoming a problem,” Nolasco said on May 26.
Abbott issued a state of disaster declaration on June 1, which includes a directive to the Texas Department of Public Safety to ramp up its efforts in enforcing federal and state laws regarding offenses such as criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking. He also asked the state’s Commission on Jail Standards to revise its standards to provide for more capacity in jails that have been operating under strict COVID-19 protocols.
Counties have been declaring local disasters since April 21.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said local schools have been forced into frequent lockdowns in the past several months due to “bailouts” of illegal immigrants.
“We had a minimum of 48 different campus closures in Uvalde and five in Batesville during the spring semester. We had to hire off-duty officers for security at Anthon,” McLaughlin said the school superintendent told him. “They drive in and they bail out right by the schools.”
A bailout—now a common term in counties near the border—usually occurs when law enforcement is attempting to pull over a suspected smuggler with a load of illegal aliens. At some point, the smuggler slows or stops the vehicle and all the passengers scatter in different directions to avoid being caught.
“It’s sad that all those small communities, and our law enforcement, are having to deal with this because it’s eating up our budgets and we’re neglecting our regular work for our citizens,” McLaughlin told The Epoch Times.
“My other question is, while we’re all over here chasing this car doing this, what’s coming through that we’re not catching?”
The small town of Cotulla, 70 miles north of Laredo on I-35 toward San Antonio, is being affected so much by illegal alien smuggling that the local school district sent a warning letter to parents and guardians.
“Please be watchful of your children as they are playing outside, walking home from school, or generally out of the house,” the April 1 letter states. It’s signed by Cotulla Independent School District Superintendent Jack Seals and La Salle County Sheriff Anthony Zertuche.
“Both our communities and the rural areas of the county have experienced a great increase in law enforcement chases and ‘bailouts,’” the letter reads.
In Uvalde, Nolasco said children are scared.
“We have children that ride the school bus that live out in the country that are scared—they’re scared to go home. If mom’s working and dad’s working and there’s nobody there for them, they’re going to open the door to their residence and find an illegal immigrant,” he said.
“And mind you, you also have a lot of sex offenders that are coming into the United States—that’s not good.”
Border Patrol in the Del Rio Sector has apprehended 95 sex offenders so far this fiscal year, compared to six during the same period in fiscal 2020. Apprehension of criminals has topped 813, compared to 161 in the same period in fiscal 2020.
Nolasco said his deputies have been involved in catching the same smuggler three times in a six-week period. The smuggler, an illegal alien, was caught after a high-speed chase that carried on for more than 50 miles, he said.
“He bails out and the passengers bail out. We finally catch up to him and check with Border Patrol, and Border Patrol runs his name and says, ‘Oh, yeah, he was just dealt with last week and he was released,'” he said.
“And here he is a week later. And that same thing happened about a month after that incident.”
Nolasco, who has 14 deputies to cover 1,600 square miles, said 95 percent of his deputies’ time is currently being spent on assisting Border Patrol with smugglers.
“It’s valuable time and resources that are being spent on a federal issue. These monies and time should be invested in our local citizens here in this town,” he said.
After being on the job for five months, the sheriff said he’s not expecting federal help.
“All I hear is that we don’t have a problem here at the border. No, I’m not going to get any help from the feds.”
The White House has said it’s focusing on the “root causes” of illegal immigration, particularly in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
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If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Facebook can ban President Trump, but seem to have no problem with ads promoting the Mexican human trafficking enterprises.
Smugglers Openly Advertise Illegal Border Crossings on Facebook
By Petr Svab June 4, 2021 Updated: June 5, 2021
Human smugglers along the southern border are openly advertising their services on Facebook and the social media company has fallen short on removing such content.
A plethora of user accounts have posted offers to facilitate illegal border crossings on the platform. Some even directly advertise how much they charge for the service. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), who took office in January, repeatedly alerted Facebook to the issue in general and to a number of specific posts of this kind, but most of them haven’t been removed, she said.
Facebook has so far failed to accommodate Cammack’s request for an in-person meeting to discuss the issue, she told The Epoch Times.
Given that some of the posts in question were paid advertisements, it raises the question of whether Facebook has been taking money, at least indirectly, from criminal cartels, which are known to control the human smuggling operations, Cammack said.
The Epoch Times alerted Facebook to about dozen posts and groups that appeared connected with the issue. Most, but not all of them, were subsequently removed.
“We prohibit content that offers or assists with human smuggling and remove it from our platform whenever we find it,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.
Illegal border crossings skyrocketed this year, after dying down during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic last year.
Information from Border Patrol and illegal immigrants themselves indicates that smugglers are tuned in to the American immigration policy climate and have used the Biden administration’s softer approach and rhetoric as an advertising tool. Specifically, the administration’s move to no longer turn back minors caught crossing illegally has been linked to a surge of unaccompanied minors taking the dangerous track to and across the border, often with disastrous consequences.
“I have witnessed some of the most horrific horrors, really, crimes against humanity that you can imagine,” Cammack said. “It is not just a national security crisis. This is a humanitarian crisis.”
Drug cartels control the Mexican side of the border so tightly that nobody gets illegally across without paying them, she learned from Border Patrol agents during her two trips to the border this year, she said.
“This is not in any shape, way, or form a humanitarian mission that the cartels are undertaking. This is about dollars and they don’t care about the value of a human life. They care about making money and they do it through the most brutal, authoritarian means possible,” she said.
While the posts on Facebook present human smuggling operations as trustworthy and safe, the reality is just the opposite.
“I have personally spoken to a 9-year-old girl who could barely tell me her name because her vocal cords had given out while screaming while being gang-raped by cartel members,” Cammack said, noting that the majority of girls are sexually assaulted or abused on their way to the border.
Most of the Facebook groups that appear connected with the human smuggling activity are private, but there’s plenty of posts that offer the illicit service publicly.
“Good morning, my people. I offer safe crossing to the U.S. Send [me a message to] my inbox for more information,” said one post translated by The Epoch Times.
“We have crossings through Lomas de Arena, Chihuahua. We offer camouflage, backpack with food. I’m currently in Chihuahua. Send me [a message to my] inbox or call me at [redacted by The Epoch Times],” another post said.
One video post said, “Ready for the adventure? In name of God,” showing footage from the border.
“I offer my foot crossing through Tamaulipas and through the [border] line. Only people truly interested, send me [a message to my] inbox. Foot crossing with 3 shots at crossing and crossing through the [border] line, but it’s 100% safe,” yet another post said.
“People, don’t miss your chance to travel to the U.S. through asylum applications guarantee, adults with minors. For more information, [send a message to my] inbox or call [redacted],” one offer said.
“The American Dream. Cross the border 100% safe by city–don’t waste your time through foot crossing overnight–I’ll get you directly to your destination. For more information send a WhatsApp to [redacted],” one user advertised.
“We are still offering border crossing to the U.S. from any country. If you’re from another country, you can pay first upon arrival to Mexico. We also offer services to fix your arrival with or without a migration alert,” another post said.
“I have 5 spots for Oxnard, California. The paperwork is not free as you cross through the [border] line. Send me a message to [redacted] for more information. Only people truly interested,” another said.
“Travel safely to the U.S. guided by God. We have the best people–responsible and righteous. Schedule your travel date. Click this WhatsApp link [redacted]. Our cars are new and drivers with years of experience, full comfort, and friendly behavior,” yet another said, claiming, “We cover all routes inside the U.S.”
Cammack acknowledged that it’s not easy to completely get rid of such posts, given the ability of the smugglers to keep adding more.
But that doesn’t absolve Facebook of its responsibilities in her view.
“They want to play in the public square and be the new public square? They have to assume the responsibility that goes with it. And so if they allow this type of activity on their platform they need to be held to account for it,” she said.
At the very least, the company should promptly take down all the posts it’s been made aware of and adjust its algorithms so it no longer shows this kind of content to users as recommendations when they search for related keywords or just randomly stumble upon it, she said.
Honduras’s ambassador met with Cammack, she said, and asked her to help interface with WhatsApp, a messaging app owned by Facebook, “because the narco-terrorists are using WhatsApp as their primary means of communication to engage in activity that is murdering people, destroying communities, and really undermining the rule of law in Honduras.”
“When you have a foreign government that’s asking for our help in communicating and working with these social media platforms, that’s a sign that they have far too much power and it’s really time for a discussion about the public square and the role of big tech in our everyday life and society and how it’s used for good and for bad,” she said.
Cammack hasn’t spared the White House either.
“It is truly incredible the level of sheer incompetence that this administration has displayed with their handling of the border crisis,” she said.
The administration has said it’s focusing on the “root causes” of illegal immigration in the Central American countries where most illegal immigrants have been coming from in recent years. Some of the illegal aliens are fleeing gang violence in their home countries, many are coming for better paid jobs.
It’s not clear how the administration plans to fix the long-festering crime problems as well as the sizable economic development gap that makes seeking life and employment in the United States attractive. The United States has been sending billions in economic aid to the countries, but the problems continue seemingly unabated. President Donald Trump managed to force the countries to curb the flow of migrants on their end by threatening to withdraw aid. The Biden administration has shown no sympathy for such an approach.
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If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
By Charlotte Cuthbertson June 16, 2021 Updated: June 16, 2021
KINNEY COUNTY, Texas—This year’s illegal immigrants are unlike those from previous years, according to Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, who was also a Border Patrol agent for 31 years.
“We’re starting to see more intentional damage,” Coe told The Epoch Times. “I’ve never seen it quite like this. Somebody’s making a statement.”
He said in the past six months, illegal aliens that get past Border Patrol in the Del Rio, Texas, area are walking through ranches, destroying fences and water pipes, leaving water faucets on, and breaking into homes.
“We’ve always had a fence cut here, fence cut there, because they’re hauling dope or small kids or something,” he said. “But we’ve never seen the intentional big four-by-four holes in the fence, or now, a 10-foot section just cut completely out. That’s really starting to bother me.”
The cost of replacing a mile of fencing can be up to $30,000, several ranchers told The Epoch Times.
“It’s all just out of spite, I think,” Coe said.
In May, Border Patrol detected 51,000 illegal immigrants that slipped past them along the U.S–Mexico border. In the same month, apprehensions hit a 21-year monthly high, with the agency arresting 180,034 illegal border-crossers.
The majority of the illegal immigrants eluding Border Patrol and walking through the ranches, or being smuggled in vehicles, are young males traveling in groups, according to local sheriffs and Border Patrol agents.
Many ranchers and homeowners are now having to constantly carry a firearm while on their property, and Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said the illegal immigrants now are more aggressive.
A resident told Nolasco that he had to hold an illegal alien at gunpoint, but the man still wasn’t backing down.
“And [the resident] finally had to cock the hammer back and say, ‘Hey, you take a step further, then things are gonna change here,'” Nolasco said. “That’s the last thing I want to hear—that we have a shooting, [that] we have somebody that had to kill somebody … I hope it never happens.”
Nolasco said stolen vehicles, criminal mischief, and burglaries have all ticked up in conjunction with the influx of illegal aliens this year.
“It’s a mess. That’s what it is. But nobody seems to care about us down here. We’re 60, 65 miles away from the border. And they say that everything’s OK. No, it’s not OK,” he said.
“Most of the [vehicle] stops, they’re finding weapons in the vehicles, so that’s nuts.”
Coe said in the past, illegal immigrants crossing through his county would be respectful and largely stay away from homes and property, unless they really needed help.
“These people now, they’re demanding, ‘You will feed me, you will give me water,'” he said.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said a resident was given a list of demands by a group of illegal aliens that approached him at home. Another couple was threatened with “I know where you live” by an illegal alien as he was being arrested on their property.
Rancher John Sewell said his three Blue Lacy dogs have likely helped change the outcome in several situations, including when a group of men approached and said they wanted to take his truck.
Coe said he doesn’t expect things to slow down before October, as summer is usually the busiest, and most dangerous, crossing season.
“Normally, around here, we have one death every 18 to 24 months—somebody will find a deceased person on their property,” he said.
“This is May, we’ve had two this month. So if that’s any indication of what the rest of the year is going to be like, that’s going to be kind of scary.”
Meanwhile, the governors of Arizona and Texas have asked other states to deploy available police or law enforcement to the U.S.–Mexico border to assist Border Patrol agents as they deal with a surge in encounters.
“With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes, before they can cause problems in your state,” Govs. Greg Abbott and Doug Ducey, both Republicans, wrote in a letter to other governors on June 10.
Abbott announced on June 10 that Texas will begin arresting illegal immigrants who enter the state. “We’re going to start making arrests, sending a message to anyone thinking about coming here: You’re not getting a free pass. You’re getting a straight pass to a jail cell.”
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Immigration & Border Security Smuggling Illegal Aliens Around Border Patrol Is Booming Business for Drivers
By Charlotte Cuthbertson June 17, 2021 Updated: June 18, 2021
DEL RIO, Texas—Social media platforms, encrypted messaging apps, and Google map pin drops are being utilized to move thousands of illegal aliens around Border Patrol checkpoints and eventually to large U.S. cities.
In Texas, drivers are recruited on social media—lured by the promise of quick cash—to haul illegal aliens to San Antonio, Houston, Austin, or Dallas. One U.S. citizen-driver told The Epoch Times he was promised $1,000 per person for the seven Guatemalans he was moving from Kinney County to San Antonio.
The Del Rio region of the Texas–Mexico border is largely ranchland, with small communities dotted in between and linked by rural roads.
The driver will have a general idea of the pickup location, and as the illegal aliens get close, the communication will ramp up, according to a senior Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) official in the Del Rio region. HSI is the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“There’s a foot guide that’s usually used to bring the noncitizens across the international border,” the official told The Epoch Times on June 4.
“Sometimes, they’ll drop a pin on a GPS map that coordinates their location to be picked up. And then the event starts from there, where they’re loaded up into a vehicle and try to conceal and evade law enforcement. And they’re transported to whatever parts of the country have been prearranged.”
The foot guide often communicates directly with the driver, but sometimes there’s a third party coordinating the smuggling from Mexico or from within the United States, the official said.
So far this fiscal year (since Oct. 1, 2020), the San Antonio HSI office has initiated more than 320 criminal investigations related to human smuggling. In fiscal 2020, the office initiated almost 450 smuggling probes.
Smuggling and trafficking are two distinct activities, according to ICE. While smuggling is the transportation of people from one place to another, involving the deliberate evasion of immigration laws, trafficking involves the use of “force, fraud, or coercion” to compel an individual into a commercial sex act or for involuntary servitude or slavery purposes. Child trafficking cases need not prove force, fraud, or coercion.
8 Deaths
In one of the more egregious smuggling cases in recent months, a 24-year-old Austin man was charged with transporting illegal aliens resulting in death on March 15. The driver, Sebastian Tovar, failed to stop when a Texas state trooper attempted to pull him over for speeding near the border town of Del Rio, according to court documents.
“Tovar led the trooper on a chase for approximately 50 miles, at times reaching speeds over 100 miles per hour,” the documents state. “Traveling north into the southbound lane on Highway 277, Tovar collided with another vehicle head-on, resulting in the death of eight illegal aliens that had been in Tovar’s pickup truck.”
The driver and passenger of the vehicle that Tovar collided with were hospitalized in stable condition.
A second vehicle carrying 12 illegal aliens was stopped near the crash site.
Tovar, who remains in federal custody, faces up to life in federal prison if convicted, according to the Department of Justice.
The minimum sentence for smuggling is generally two years of prison time for each person the individual smuggled. Sentencing escalates depending on injury, death, and prior convictions. Recruitment
Traditionally, most arrests of individuals involved in smuggling occur in South Texas or West Texas, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Director Steve McCraw said during a border summit in Del Rio on June 10.
“The cartels are now reaching out—because they need more labor—to cities such as Houston, San Antonio, and others, using social media, and promising lots of money,” he said.
McCraw showed a recruitment video on TikTok that flashed wads of cash, and the words “Drivers needed!!! DM to make some racks,” with bouncy music reminiscent of the neighborhood ice cream truck playing in the background.
“Mexican cartels have always done a very good job, unfortunately, of seeking and recruiting our children along the Texas–Mexico border to support their cartel operations, smuggling operations,” he said.
Often, juveniles avoid prosecution for smuggling drugs or humans, making them targets for recruitment.
Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco said the majority of drivers he has dealt with are U.S. citizens out of Austin, while many of the vehicles are stolen.
“And they’re young adults—early-20s, to probably possibly mid-30s. And there’s no respect for life or property,” he said. “It’s very dangerous out here now.”
Uvalde is currently plagued by high-speed pursuits, as two of the longest highways intersect in the city. Nolasco estimates there’s an average of two pursuits a day in his county, which has ramped up from about two per week in January, when the border crossings started to spike.
In the region, Texas state troopers have recorded a jump in vehicle pursuits, from seven in January to 50 in April.
On June 13, a U-Haul truck containing 27 illegal aliens was stopped near a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The agency said the cargo area was unventilated and had reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit. The illegal aliens were from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, while the driver and passenger were U.S. citizens, according to CBP. All were placed under arrest pending further investigation.
On June 10, 33 illegal aliens were discovered locked inside a U-Haul truck near a McDonalds near Big Bend, Texas—12 were subsequently transported to regional hospitals.
HSI’s focus is to look at the big picture and find a way to dismantle entire operations, the senior agency official said. Agents will look to raise a state smuggling prosecution to the federal level if it’s tied to a larger criminal enterprise or linked to a current investigation.
“We try and build the investigation to identify the infrastructure of the criminal organization, identify the different players that are involved, any assets that they may have, that are used—vehicles or load houses, stash houses—and also any proceeds that they’re gaining from that crime,” he said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state disaster declaration on June 1 to push more of the state’s DPS resources into controlling the border and the spillover crime, highlighting 34 highly affected counties.
“I hereby direct DPS to use available resources to enforce all applicable federal and state laws to prevent the criminal activity along the border, including criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking, and to assist Texas counties in ther efforts to address those criminal activities,” Abbott’s declaration states.
Abbott also launched a website to raise money for the continued construction of a border wall in Texas.
HSI urges anyone with information about a smuggling attempt to call (866) 347-2423.
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Florida’s ‘Cavalry’ Helps Secure the Border: ‘You’ve Got a Storm and We’re Coming to Help You’
By Patricia Tolson June 18, 2021 Updated: June 18, 2021
At a June 16 press conference, Florida’s Ron DeSantis became the first governor to answer the plea for help from fellow Republican governors—Doug Ducey of Arizona and Greg Abbott of Texas—by authorizing the deployment of law enforcement resources to help secure the border.
“It’s undeniable that the border crisis is out of control,” Christina Pushaw, press secretary to DeSantis told The Epoch Times. “Helping our fellow Americans in their moment of need is always the right thing to do. The governors of other states have sent resources to Florida in the past to help respond to natural disasters. With the federal government unable or unwilling to enforce our laws and secure our border, Florida is ready to step up to the plate and do our part.” Time to Return the Favor
“Florida is stepping up to the plate,” Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey declared to The Epoch Times, saying, “Texas and Arizona, you’ve got a storm, and we’re coming to help you.”
“When the state of Florida has a storm that devastates an area, law enforcement resources from across the country respond and come to our rescue,” Ivey explained. “The concept of responding to the needs of a state in the aftermath of a storm is no different than responding to the needs of another state in the midst of a border crisis.”
It’s a sentiment shared by other Florida sheriffs.
“When the governor called Wednesday and expressed his concerns about our southern border, I immediately offered whatever resources we could spare for this endeavor,” Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden told The Epoch Times. “After all, these states have answered the call for us with hurricane relief and other emergencies, so it’s only fair that we return the effort when they call for help.”
“It’s doing the right thing,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told The Epoch Times. “Inevitably, whenever we have an emergency or a hurricane that comes through here, the governors of Texas and Arizona send us anything that we need.”
Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford told The Epoch Times he also sees the cry for help from the governors of Texas and Arizona to secure the border as an opportunity to repay the debt he owes after hurricane Michael devastated Bay County and many sheriffs from other states came to their aid.
“So we’re going to volunteer to be the first ones there to help,” Ford said. Securing the Border
“Securing the border helps Floridians,” Pushaw explained. “Even though Florida isn’t a border state, securing the southern border would help stop the flow of narcotics that end up in our state and ravage our communities. Illegal immigrants have also committed crimes in Florida, which could have been prevented if our immigration laws were enforced.”
As Marceno told The Epoch Times, fentanyl cases have gone up 230 percent in Lee County over the past six months and there has been a 3,000 percent increase in the number of sexual predators coming across U.S. borders.
“We’re not going to allow it,” Marceno asserted. “Florida’s residents are going to be safe and secure.”
“It’s something I think is missed sometimes in the talking points of this issue of a safe and secure border,” Ford observed. “It’s not just the individuals that may be coming across the border but the dangerous products they bring with them.”
According to Ford, Bay County has also been flooded with amphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin over the past six months.
While they would typically “high five” the seizure of a half-pound of meth, Ford said it’s now not uncommon to intercept five to six pounds, even upward of 10 to 12 pounds. There have also been 150 drug overdoses in Bay County since January, with 15 of them being fatal, all of which he attributes to the fentanyl coming across the border. Proud of DeSantis
“This is exactly what leadership, crisis management, and commitment to law and order looks like” Ivey attested. “The guy’s got it going on. He’s not afraid to stand on the ledge and make decisions. He understands, like I do, that the government’s one and only responsibility is to protect its citizens, and he has taken an oath to protect his citizens, his cops, and his Constitution.”
“The governor is the true definition of an amazing leader,” Marceno explained, citing the extremely difficult decisions DeSantis made in the midst of the pandemic. “That is the reason why 904 people a day move to our state, for law enforcement and safety. He is a phenomenal leader. He’s an amazing man to work with. The communication is constant and I am very proud to say he’s our governor in the state of Florida.”
“I think it’s very important that we heed those calls because we were in a time of great need two years ago,” Ford stated. “I just remember that feeling of having the cavalry roll in to assist, not asking any questions like who’s going to pay for it but just being available. I know the burden they’re carrying on the border.”
“The situation at the border is more than a crisis and one that must be dealt with immediately,” Aden asserted. “It’s a matter of national security. But if the federal government cannot or will not gain control, then states like Florida will come to the aid of our fellow states pleading for help.” Critical Democrats
Despite the overwhelming support DeSantis has received from Florida’s law enforcement, some Democrats have criticized the move by DeSantis.
Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), one of two Democrat declared candidates to run for the position of governor in 2022, called the decision to send Florida law enforcement to the border a “political stunt.” Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the second declared Democrat candidate for governor, wrote on Twitter: “Florida’s current governor just makes controversies up to get on Fox News.”
Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani wrote: “Another political stunt by @GovRonDeSantis—instead of perpetuating the attacks on immigrants & going after Biden Administration why don’t you focus on the people who live in FL!”
“These are real issues that affect Floridians’ everyday lives, and it’s wrong to dismiss the Governor’s attempt to address these issues as a mere ‘political stunt,’” Pushaw insisted. “Those who criticize Gov. DeSantis’ decision are the ones engaging in political grandstanding at Floridians’ expense.”
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Aw, c'mon Kamala, we understand your desperate attempt(s) to deflect criticism of your total absence at the scene of the worst failure of border security in decades, as well as the timing of your trip to El Paso.
But, rather than bury your head in the west Texas sand in the safest place along the Texas border for your emergency rush deflection trip to "the border", why not go to the real border where you can witness what is really going on down here, or at the very least, at least read the (true) reports* of those who have?
Statistics prove that due to the border wall and policies of the previous administration, El Paso is enjoying the very lowest incursion rate of any point along the 1254 miles of international border, far overshadowed by the Del Rio and Rio Grande Valley.
*[size:17pt]542 Percent Increase in Convicted Sex Offenders Arrested at Border
By Charlotte Cuthbertson June 27, 2021 Updated: June 29, 2021
DEL RIO, Texas—Border Patrol agents have arrested 353 illegal aliens with sex-related criminal convictions so far this fiscal year. A large number of the detainees had prior convictions for crimes involving a minor.
In the same period in fiscal 2020, agents apprehended 55 criminal sex offenders, and 58 total in all of fiscal 2019.
The number of criminals illegally crossing the southwest border has spiked in tandem with the border crossing surge this year. Convicted criminals are the most likely population of illegal aliens trying to avoid capture by Border Patrol.
Border Patrol has detected more than 250,000 illegal aliens who have evaded capture so far this year, according to the newly-appointed Acting Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on June 24. It’s impossible to estimate how many have evaded Border Patrol without detection.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read a paper or a report from my agents that talks about criminal aliens, sexual offenders that they’ve apprehended out there,” Ortiz said during an event in Del Rio, Texas.
“Those folks aren’t getting released in these communities. Guess what happens to them? They go to jail. When they get out of jail, they go back to their country of origin.”
According to reports by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), many of the criminals being caught have already been deported, sometimes on multiple occasions.
On June 24, agents in Rio Grande City, Texas, arrested convicted sex offender, Benito Gomez-Lopez, from Mexico. Gomez-Lopez was arrested in May 2020 by the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota for possession of certain prohibited materials and promoting a sexual performance by a minor, according to CBP.
He pleaded guilty to both counts and was sentenced to three years confinement, but was repatriated to Mexico in July 2020.
On June 14, a Peruvian child rapist was arrested by Border Patrol after he entered the United States illegally near Roma, Texas, according to CBP. Pedro Asuncion ORE-Quispe, 43, had been deported in 2020 after serving over five years for felony rape of a child in Idaho.
On June 20, Mexican national Isidro Efrain Gallardo-Rangel was apprehended as part of a group of 24 illegal aliens near Laredo. Gallardo-Rangel is a registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history and a conviction for indecency with a child in 2018 in Dallas, Texas, according to CBP.
DEL RIO
Once a relatively quiet region for illegal border crossings, the Del Rio Sector in Texas is now the second busiest, after the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase. So far this year, this fiscal year, today, we’ve caught 144,000 people in the Del Rio sector,” said sector chief Austin Skero on June 24.
“We’ve gone through this before—we’ve seen these increases, these surges, for the last 30 or 40 years. It’s never been this bad. I’ll tell you that straight up, I’ve never seen it this bad.”
Skero said the sector has seen a 1,400 percent increase in the number of sex offenders arrested by Border Patrol agents.
A Del Rio resident said that prior to January he had seen two illegal aliens pass through his backyard.
Now, he said, it’s hundreds a day.
“I have four daughters—does it concern me when you say there’s a 1,400 percent increase in sex offenders? Yes, it concerns me,” the resident said during a border update on June 24.
“I’m concerned about the single men who are running through my backyard, sneaking. And I’m about a 50 percent success rate on whether or not I get an agent to come out to my place when I call. And when they do, it’s awesome, they bring helicopters, they bring support.
“Otherwise, I’m sitting there unarmed and there’s a guy soaking wet in my backyard screaming at me in Spanish. I don’t know what to do with this guy.”
The resident asked Border Patrol if they could provide some type of training to citizens to prepare them for such encounters.
Skero suggested for residents to not engage with illegal aliens who are on their property and to call Border Patrol.
“We’re going to come just as soon as we can. Sometimes it will be immediate, sometimes it might take us an hour.”
But, he said, if an illegal immigrant is endangering a resident’s family, or is being assaultive, call 911.
STATE RESPONSE
At the behest of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) started surging extra law enforcement resources to the border beginning in March.
In the three months from March 4 through June 3, DPS has arrested 1,489 criminals.
In addition, State Troopers have been involved in 340 vehicle pursuits along the border and have dealt with 630 vehicle bailouts. A bailout occurs when a vehicle being pulled by law enforcement stops and the illegal immigrant occupants scatter and flee to avoid capture.
Abbott issued a state of disaster declaration on June 10, highlighting 34 border counties that are struggling with cross-border crime and illegal immigration.
“We’re going to start making arrests, sending a message to anyone thinking about coming here: You’re not getting a free pass. You’re getting a straight pass to a jail cell,” Abbott said.
Last week a prison unit in Dilley, Texas, was being emptied in preparation for illegal alien criminals.
Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey also issued a call for help to other governors on June 10.
“With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes, before they can cause problems in your state,” Abbott and Ducey, both Republicans, wrote in a letter.
So far, several Republican governors have pledged support by way of sending law enforcement personnel or National Guard troops.
Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo Follow Charlotte on Parler: @charlottecuthbo
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Immigration & Border Security South Dakota, Iowa to Send Law Enforcement Officers to Southern Border
By Mimi Nguyen Ly June 29, 2021 Updated: June 29, 2021
The Republican governors of South Dakota and Iowa said in recent announcements they will be sending law enforcement personnel to the U.S.–Mexico border. It comes after the governors of Texas and Arizona asked all other states to help with the ongoing border crisis by providing additional manpower.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said late Monday that 50 South Dakota National Guard troops will be sent to the southern border.
“Tomorrow morning I’m officially announcing up to 50 National Guard troops to Texas to help secure our border,” Noem announced on Twitter. “The Biden administration has failed to keep America safe. We shouldn’t be making our own communities vulnerable by sending police to fix Biden’s border crisis.”
Noem’s announcement comes several days after the office of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that Iowa State Patrol officers will be deployed to help with border security efforts. The move was in response to a June 10 request from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey for more law enforcement manpower.
South Dakota and Iowa now join Florida, Nebraska, and Idaho in committing to send law enforcement to the southern border to help Texas and Arizona.
Abbott and Ducey wrote in their letter, “With your help, we can apprehend more of these perpetrators of state and federal crimes, before they can cause problems in your state.” The letter asserted that under a mutual agreement between states, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, any officers that states send to Texas or Arizona will be given “the same power … duties, rights, and privileges as are afforded forces of the state in which they are performing emergency services,” which will “include the power to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border into our territory.”
“My first responsibility is to the health and safety of Iowans and the humanitarian crisis at our nation’s southern border is affecting all 50 states,” Reynolds said in a statement on June 24.
“The rise in drugs, human trafficking, and violent crime has become unsustainable. Iowa has no choice but to act, and it’s why I am honoring Texas’s Emergency Management Assistance Compact following assurances from the Iowa Department of Public Safety that it will not compromise our ability to provide all necessary public safety services to Iowans.”
The Iowa governor’s office on June 24 noted that there has been a marked increase in drug trafficking seizures in the state, in particular of methamphetamine and fentanyl, since May last year.
“In Iowa, law enforcement officials are recovering drugs, illegal narcotics, and weapons being smuggled across the nation’s southern border by drug cartels,” the office announced.
Reynolds’s office also acknowledged that the Iowa National Guard is currently carrying out a mission with 24 soldiers from Unit 2/34 IBCT to help law enforcement at the southern border. The mission was in response to a request from the federal government under the Trump administration in October 2020.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were 180,034 border crossings in May—the largest number in two decades. Follow Mimi on Twitter: @MimiNguyenLy
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
Kinney County Constable Steve Gallegos and Kinney County Sheriff’s deputies arrest a smuggler and seven illegal aliens from Guatemala near Brackettville, Texas, on May 25, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Immigration & Border Security
Fewer Smugglers Detained as Small Border Counties Run Out of Jail Space
By Charlotte Cuthbertson June 30, 2021 Updated: June 30, 2021
BRACKETTVILLE, Texas—Law enforcement authorities are releasing human smugglers with a citation rather than arresting them as counties struggle with a critical shortage in jail space.
Small counties aren’t set up for the overwhelming increase in cross-border crime, and smugglers who are here illegally are often passed to Border Patrol to be repatriated without being charged.
The jail in Kinney County, Texas, holds a maximum of 14 people, but the sheriff tries to hold two spaces open for “something violent, or something out of the ordinary.”
Sheriff Brad Coe said he has 12 inmates in his jail right now, as well as another six being housed in the neighboring Val Verde County jail. Ten of the 18 are in jail for the smuggling of illegal aliens.
Coe said jail space is the biggest problem in small counties dealing with the border crisis.
A Kinney County deputy pulled over a woman on May 24 who had a warrant out for her arrest and was driving without a license. The deputy was forced to let her go because the jail doesn’t accommodate females.
Coe said the result is that “the scouts are females [and] the drivers are starting to be female.”
On June 25, law enforcement gave Border Patrol custody of a driver who was allegedly smuggling nine illegal immigrants, because the Kinney County jail was full. The driver, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, also had an active arrest warrant out for driving while intoxicated in San Antonio.
Border Patrol agents on the scene confirmed that they would most likely return the man back across the border without charging him with smuggling.
Frustrated by the lack of federal charges, a Texas State Trooper filed state charges against the driver so there would be an arrest warrant out for him for felony smuggling the next time he’s caught in the United States.
As law enforcement pursued the driver during the initial traffic stop, the driver stopped the vehicle and all of the occupants fled across the road, climbed a game fence onto a ranch, and attempted to evade arrest. Officers retrieved the driver and three illegal immigrants. Six others remained at large.
As the driver and the three illegal immigrants from Mexico were being detained, the ranch owner drove past and said he wanted them charged with trespassing on his land, a misdemeanor. But a full jail prevented charges from being laid. Instead, Border Patrol took custody to process the migrants and return them to Mexico.
Coe said he wants to stick illegal immigrants with any charges he can, so that it might deter them from coming to his county, but he doesn’t have the infrastructure to do it.
Neighboring Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco has the same issues, especially with the spike in human smuggling in his county. Law enforcement is catching at least two loaded smuggling vehicles per day through Uvalde.
“It’s getting to the point that it’s filling up my jail. So that’s becoming a problem,” Nolasco told The Epoch Times.
If the jail is full, the smugglers will be processed and given a court date with the “hope that they’ll come back,” he said.
“You have a 12-ounce glass, you can only put 12 ounces of content in it. … It’s going to fill up and then you’re going to have an overflow, you’re going to have a mess, and that’s what’s happening right now—it’s a mess.” State Assistance
Illegal border apprehensions hit 180,034 in May, a 21-year monthly high, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics. So far this fiscal year, Border Patrol has apprehended almost half a million illegal aliens entering the state of Texas from Mexico.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a state disaster declaration on June 1, and on June 10, he said state resources will be deployed to enforce “all federal and state criminal laws such as criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) didn’t comment on whether the plan was to prioritize charging illegal aliens on private land, or just anyone they came into contact with, including those being smuggled in vehicles.
DPS Troopers have been involved in 413 vehicle pursuits along the Texas–Mexico border from March through June 24, DPS press secretary Ericka Miller told The Epoch Times.
DPS recently emptied the Briscoe Unit prison facility in Dilley, Texas, in preparation for the incarceration of illegal aliens arrested under state law. It’s a male-only unit with a capacity of 1,384 beds.
“It was determined that the Briscoe Unit was in a strategic location to house those arrested for committing a crime along the border and had adequate staffing to run the facility,” Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, said in a statement on June 18.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice told The Epoch Times on June 28 that no illegal immigrants had been placed in the facility yet.
Coe said the facility in Dilley—almost 100 miles away—isn’t a practical solution for his county, as the transport back and forth is prohibitive with his limited resources.
“And even at that facility that will hold, say, 1,000 people, if everybody on the border’s doing it, then that facility’s going to fill up over a weekend. And then what?” he said.
Coe said if he had the guards, he’d set up tent space next to his detention facility to house more criminals. But he already has two jailer jobs open and lamented how low the wages are. “My head jailer, who’s been here 25 years, she makes $14 per hour.”
On June 25, Abbott issued a statewide call for jailers across the state to assist border sheriffs with operating detention facilities and providing jail beds for those arrested on state charges related to the border crisis.
Coe is hoping he can tap into some state resources to alleviate his jail space issue, but it’s not as immediate as he’d like.
The other bottleneck, he said, is that the district judge only hears felony cases coming out of Kinney County once per month.
Follow Charlotte on Twitter: @charlottecuthbo Follow Charlotte on Parler: @charlottecuthbo
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
_________________________
If what's ahead scares you & what's behind hurts you,look up; He never fails you.
If My people will humble themselves, pray, seek My face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & heal their land. 2 Chron 7:14
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