By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Commissioners Court members Dec. 20 approved a request by Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez for overtime his deputies related to an anticipated increase in the numbers of immigrants coming into the county.
Martinez made his request to the court during its December regular term meeting. The agenda item asked the court to authorize Martinez to pay “overtime in support of our federal partners for the lifting of Title 42.”
Title 42 is a pandemic policy enacted by the federal government, allowing federal immigration officers to swiftly deport persons who have entered the country illegally for health-related reasons.
The Biden administration has moved to end the policy, which was set to expire Dec. 21, but a group of Republican governors made a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to keep the policy in place. A Supreme Court justice placed a temporary halt on the lifting of Title 42, but most officials believe the policy will end sometime soon.
“Last week, we attended two meetings because Title 42 was to be lifted on the 21st. (Supreme Court) Justice (John) Roberts yesterday, I think, sort of put a hold on that, but the hold is until President Biden or the White House can respond at 5 o’clock today (Dec. 20). So, depending on what the response is from the president, all that could probably change again,” County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. told the court.
“I will tell you, that in the meetings we had at the (Del Rio) Port of Entry, here, with (Port Director) Liliana Flores, she gave us a briefing on how she was anticipating who would be coming across and how they would be handling it. We also met last Thursday with the Border Patrol, and they had a plan,” Owens said.
“I will say that I believe that Title 42, it’s just a matter of time before it goes away,” the county judge added.
Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez told the court, “We have enough grant funds to take us to about first part of February (2023), the middle of February, and after that, we have to wait for the new (Operation) Stonegarden money to drop on March 1, so there’s a two- to three-week period in there that we won’t have any funding mechanism to pay overtime.
“If I cut the hours down, well, again, that cuts the manpower that’s out there, and we want to be able to support our federal partners with whatever they need,” the sheriff added.
Owens noted there are funds under the state’s ongoing Operation Lone Star program that could be used for the deputies’ overtime. He added he had asked the sheriff to put the item on the agenda so the court “could have some idea of what’s going on.”
County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton then made a motion to authorize the payment of the deputies’ expected overtime in relation to the lifting of Title 42 out of Operation Lone Star. County Commissioner Pct. 2 Juan Carlos Vazquez gave the second, and the court unanimously approved the motion.
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