By Karen Gleason
830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez Friday spoke about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s pledge to resume construction of the border wall and to arrest anyone who crosses the Rio Grande illegally.
Abbott made his remarks during a Border Security Summit in Del Rio Thursday.
Martinez told the 830 Times he’s taking a wait-and-see stance on the governor’s promise to resume building the border wall.
“The border wall, that was his comment. The governor said he’s going to make an announcement next week, and I don’t know what that announcement is going to be,” the sheriff said, adding Abbott has made no private comments to him or to any of the other sheriffs in the Border Sheriff’s Coalition about the project.
Martinez also said the governor’s pledge to arrest every person entering Texas illegally is, at present, unrealistic.
“His other (comment), arresting every individual that comes in; right now we’re struggling. It’s a chess game, placing inmates once an arrest is made, because you have inmates that are gang-related, that can’t live with certain people. Then you have inmates that have mental health issues, you have 17-year-olds, you have females, so our bed capacity is already stretched as it is, and has been,” Martinez said.
The high number of inmates in the county detention center is also costing the county money, the sheriff said.
“So that already has cost us, with our agreement with GEO, right at $110,000, from mid-March to now, and we anticipate if this trend continues, it’s going to cost Val Verde County, our taxpayers, upwards of a quarter of a million dollars during this fiscal year,” the sheriff said.
Martinez added there is no sign the trend of persons entering the country illegally will slow down or stop anytime soon.
“People are going to keep coming. It’s going to get worse. With respect to arresting everybody that comes in, there’s no way that this facility or this county can maintain those individuals,” Martinez said.
The county detention facility remains at or near capacity, the sheriff said.
“On the state side, we have 171 beds, but because of the makeup of the population, those factors I mentioned before, at 125 (inmates) we’re already stretched. And that’s the population that was there the day before yesterday (Tuesday),” the sheriff said.
For instance, he noted, there are six to eight female inmates that are taking up a 24-bed unit.
Martinez said if he arrested everyone in one of the large groups of migrants law enforcement officers are encountering along the Rio Grande, he would be out of room at the detention center in a single day.
“We couldn’t do it, even if we were to arrest 10. We’re ‘saving’ our space for serious offenses, felony offenses, family violence and human smugglers,” Martinez said.
“Every day I hear on the radio, other counties asking other facilities if they will take an inmate for a misdemeanor offense, and they’re being declined, and we’re basically doing the same thing,” he added.
Asked if he had considered expanding the detention center with temporary or tent-like housing, Martinez said, “So that was brought up a few months ago with Col. (Steve) McCraw (the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety) and then again with the regional director for DPS, and that’s what prompted this meeting (on Thursday), because we asked for 60 to 80 bed soft-sided shelters to help through the process.
“Putting that in Val Verde County, would it help us? Yes, but I think the real need is in the communities along the I-35 corridor, places like Atascosa County, they’re busting at the seams over there, with chases every day. Somebody made a comment yesterday they were having six chases in a week; well, in Atascosa County, they have six chases before lunch every day,” Martinez said.
“It’s going to be a heavy lift for everybody involved, so it depends on where those 1,000 (additional) beds are. We’re putting in for some waivers or variances at our facility to add a couple more beds, but it’s only going to add five or six beds,” he added.
Martinez said he’s glad the governor made the trip to Val Verde County.
“I think it’s good, and that he maybe put the public at ease. There’s a lot of fear out there, fear of the unknown, what’s going on, so that, I think is good. So we’ll just see what happens in the next couple of weeks,” Martinez said.
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