South Carolina Attorney General’s Trip to the Southern Border Cost the Public Nearly $3,000

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WBTW) — South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office paid nearly $3,000 for his first trip to the southern border earlier this week, a spokesperson told News13.

Wilson spent one night at a private residence with a senior adviser and was in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday.

Wilson said in a news release that he was briefed by officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety “about the many issues affecting South Carolina,” and that he was assisted by Attorneys General Chris Carr of Georgia and Jason Miyares of Virginia.

According to figures from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 3.3% of crimes in South Carolina last year were immigration-related, compared to 30% nationwide.

Wilson spokesman Robert Kittle told News13 that the attorney general met with Texas Border Patrol Agent Mike Banks and officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

“Illegal drugs from Mexican cartels are coming through the southern border and ending up in SC every day,” Kittle said. “He was also briefed and given updated information on human trafficking and how our current border policies have led to an increase in human trafficking.”

Since 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created specifically to address human trafficking and smuggling from Central American countries and Mexico, has made more than 300 arrests, resulting in approximately 240 convictions.

Wilson’s efforts to strengthen South Carolina’s illegal immigration laws and policies have been a hallmark of his administration. Last month, he joined a federal lawsuit seeking to block taxpayer-funded health care services for children brought to the country by noncitizens.

Kittle said the state grand jury has heard nine recent cases involving 527 defendants, some of whom are illegal immigrants.

Examples of these are:

• “Devil in Disguise”: A Fentanyl and Methamphetamine Investigation That Resulted in 90 Suspects
• “Las Señoritas:” An investigation that mainly involved methamphetamine and that resulted in 54 suspects
• “Triple Crown:” An investigation that primarily involved cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl and resulted in 63 suspects
• “Los Banditos:” Methamphetamine investigation results in 44 suspects, including illegal immigrants
• “Rocket Fuel:” Methamphetamine investigation results in 35 suspects
• “Groundhog Day:” Methamphetamine investigation results in 39 suspects
• “Prison Empire:” Methamphetamine investigation results in 100 suspects, including illegal immigrants
• “Polar Express:” Methamphetamine investigation results in 56 suspects, including illegal immigrants
• “Graceland:” An investigation primarily involving methamphetamine that resulted in 46 suspects

Kittle said in a statement that Wilson has no confidence in a high-profile, bipartisan border security bill that failed earlier this year.

“It did a great job of throwing huge amounts of money at the symptoms of the crisis while ignoring the root causes of the crisis,” Wilson’s office said. “It did a great job of funding the pipeline to process illegals into the interior, but did very little to deter illegal border crossings in the first place.”

Kittle told News13 that Wilson has no plans to return to the border.