By Karen Gleason
The number of illegal immigrants coming into the county is edging ever higher, but so far encounters between the immigrants and area residents have remained peaceful, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said.
“The situation related to the immigrants is just escalating. There’s more and more coming. On Tuesday (April 20), before 11 o’clock in the morning, they’d already rounded up 100 between the deputies and the Border Patrol. Then on Wednesday, they had another group of 89,” Martinez told the 830 Times Friday.
Martinez said so far in the month of April, deputies have come into contact with 324 immigrants in Val Verde County.
“And that’s just us,” the sheriff added.
He said in March, deputies came into contact with about 450 immigrants.
Martinez said sheriff’s office deputies don’t transport the immigrants, but stay with them until Border Patrol transport vehicles arrive.
“The deputies are still just holding the immigrants until the Border Patrol comes to transport them,” he said.
Martinez said on Wednesday, he waited for about two hours with the group of four immigrants he personally encountered while patrolling Vega Verde Road along the Rio Grande.
“The Border Patrol agents are so busy, but they’re doing a good job keeping the immigrants off our streets. That’s really the goal, keeping them out of the neighborhoods, out of our streets,” Martinez said.
Despite the rising numbers, the sheriff said so far, neither the immigrants nor county residents have created real problems for law enforcement.
“We haven’t had any incidents of immigrants interacting negatively with members of the community, even along the river,” Martinez said.
The sheriff said he understands residents’ worries about the rising numbers of immigrants.
“I get calls, people telling me, ‘They broke in our house,’ and when they say ‘they,’ they’re referring to the immigrants, but there’s nothing to indicate ‘they’ did it. Nothing,” Martinez said.
Martinez reiterated that face-to-face encounters between immigrants and residents have, so far, been peaceful.
“The immigrants that are more aggressive are the Cubans. They’re a little bit more bold than the Venezuelans,” the sheriff said.
Martinez said most of the immigrants coming across now are Venezuelans.
“I don’t know why they’re coming. They’re fleeing their country because of their government,” he said.
