By Karen Gleason
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the reporter’s first-person account as she visited the Vega Verde part of Val Verde County.
After seeing groups of immigrants on TV who illegally entered the country walking along border dirt roads in the Rio Grande Valley, I wondered if the same situation could be found along Vega Verde Road in far south Val Verde County.
The road, an eight-mile stretch of pavement, parallels the Rio Grande. Homeowners with properties between the road and the river have for years faced problems with immigrants crossing their properties and, just as often, from criminals who cross the river to break into homes or steal property left in yards, only to re-cross the river back into Mexico, where local law enforcement cannot follow.
I headed down to “the Vega,” as the area is locally known, shortly after noon today.
I saw a Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office pickup truck patrolling the area as I turned onto Vega Verde from Cienegas Road.
On Friday, Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told me that his men “can barely patrol along the river without a group of immigrants trying to surrender to them.”
I drove the length of Vega Verde Road, from Cienegas to the gated private road at its northwestern end, but saw no immigrants, either on the drive up or on the drive back.
As I approached the intersection of Vega Verde and Cienegas on the return journey, I saw a group of about 15 people walking from the old Bordelon property across a gravel road in front of the home and out onto Cienegas Road.
The group included several adult men and women, one teenager and several small children. As I passed the group and slowed to take a photo, one of the men waved his arms and called out, “Hey, help!”
None of the group was wearing wet clothing, leading me to believe they had been ferried across the Rio Grande by boat.
Farther up Cienegas Road, I saw a Border Patrol unit pulled off the road. As I slowed down to tell the agent about the group walking along the road, I saw that he had detained three men, who were resting in the grass along the fence, waiting, one supposes, for another vehicle to transport them to the Border Patrol station for processing.
The immigrant situation, which we see on our television sets and computers every day, is happening right here and now in Del Rio.
