Carroll County Sheriff: What I Learned from a Trip to the Southern Border | GUEST COMMENTS

Like most Americans, I have wondered how the problems at the southern border are affecting crime and the quality of life for citizens in my country and in other states far from the border. How can what happens in McAllen, Texas, affect the lives of Americans in Westminster, Maryland, more than 1,700 miles away? But after nearly 36 years in law enforcement, I have gained a different perspective than most when it comes to border security and how it impacts crime, including the public health crisis of heroin and fentanyl addiction.

Last month I took the opportunity to visit McAllen, Texas, and the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector. During a three-day visit, a group of 75 officials from 20 different states, including sheriffs, senators, state representatives and other policymakers, received briefings from a diverse group including Border Patrol leadership, Texas State Troopers and border officials, representatives from neighboring border states. , non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate for migrants, farmers and other local citizens affected by illegal border crossings. We also had the opportunity to visit border points and border wall sections. We observed Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) helicopter and patrol boat operations along the Rio Grande. I’m no border expert, but after this trip it became abundantly clear that we are dealing with a border security problem that has turned into a man-made humanitarian and criminal crisis.

After a tour and conversation with a family of Cuban migrants being treated by an NGO, it became clear that border states are overwhelmed and struggling to combat the problem. When I visited border sites, I noticed that parts of the border wall were missing, not because the cartel had demolished them, but because funding was cut before completion. I learned that these areas are where the cartel “coyotes” drop off migrants trying to enter the United States. This is also where drug couriers from cartels enter our country. I learned that high-definition cameras along the valley have not been working for more than a year due to procurement issues and the COVID-19-era excuse of “supply chain issues.”

In an effort to slow illegal crossings, Texas officials have called in other state police agencies to support Texas DPS troopers. While I was there I saw many Florida Highway Troopers and National Guard troops. We received additional briefings from local news organizations traveling with caravans migrating from South America. These organizations showed us images and interviews of migrants entering North America through the Darien Gap, where women are given what can only be described as rape kits by NGOs who know they will likely be sexually assaulted on their journey north.

We saw images of migrants throwing away their documentation at the border so that US officials could not properly identify them, including criminals from other countries. These are not just a few IDs thrown on the ground – rather, they are several hundred thousand, as the identification document fields left at the border could rival the local landfill. Ironically, I had to show my ID to gain entry to the NGO I was visiting. NGOs serve migrants in South America before they cross the Darien Gap, and in the United States just as they cross the border into McAllen, Texas. These NGOs make money hand over fist, and they have an incentive to help migrants complete their long journey because when they reach the United States, the NGOs get good money from the US government to process and transport them. I have no doubt that the people who work for these NGOs think they are doing a good job, but I find it difficult to understand why anyone would encourage someone to take a trip where they could be sexually assaulted or even die.

The amount of drugs, including fentanyl, that the cartels are smuggling through the border is staggering. In the United States, enough people die from fentanyl poisoning in one day to fill a Boeing 747. What would happen if a Boeing 747 crashed in our province every day? What did the governments of the United States and the rest of the world do when two Boeing planes crashed? They had Boeing ground their Boeing Max planes to figure out how this happened before they could continue flying them to prevent any more lives from being lost. But when it comes to the fentanyl flowing across our border, we have done little to address this crisis and stop the thousands of deaths. All Washington has done is argue about who created the problem, who made it worse, and who is standing in the way of making it better.

I could go on and on about the economic impact that uncontrolled migration has on communities along the border and the states that host thousands of migrants. I can tell you what farmers are experiencing, with damaged property, dead livestock and encounters with violent cartel members trying to get their products (both drugs and people) through their farms. We can discuss the burden it places on a school system as it attempts to integrate migrant children into the system, with little means to assess a child’s educational level or even their actual age or date of birth.

If you are told by a politician or government official that everything is fine at the border and that there is nothing to see there, you are being lied to. If you are told that what happens at the border has no consequences for you, you are being lied to. If you are told that NGOs are not making a profit from this crisis, you are being lied to. Ignorance is bliss, and the politicians lying to you have probably never visited the border or spoken to anyone along the border affected by these issues. If they were to visit McAllen, Texas or other border communities, they wouldn’t be able to walk away and say there’s nothing to see.

James T. DeWees is the sheriff of Carroll County.