By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A group of citizens who attended Thursday’s border forum here asked questions and voiced their own concerns about the region’s ongoing border issues.
The border town hall meeting, organized by Kinney County resident Kelly Perry, was held in the Living Stone Worship Center.
After presentations by County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. and Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, citizens attending the meeting were encouraged to ask questions.
One retired Border Patrol agent who attended the meeting sharply criticized the agency’s current leader, Del Rio native Raul Ortiz.
“If you don’t agree with what’s happening, speak up and leave. Don’t stand there and keep being the puppet. I’ve known Raul Ortiz for 30 years. We worked together and we were friends and everything. He came down here and had a town hall and told everybody, ‘I’m going to support you guys. I’m going to be your voice.’ And what did he do?
“He came down here during that crisis and stood in front of everybody here in Del Rio on national TV and frickin’ lied and said (the Haitians) were all going to be deported. And what happened? Eighty to 90% were released, just in other places,” the former agent charged.
Owens replied that he had heard 3,400 of the Haitians that were under the international bridge were deported and the rest were released.
“So don’t fool yourselves that anybody is up there and you’re going to make any headway,” the former Border Patrol agent said, adding Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, when he worked with the Obama administration, “they were doing the exact same thing.”
“The only way you’re going to stop this thing is if the federal government starts deporting some of these people. As soon as that happens, the word goes back to whatever country, and it stops,” the man said.
“I know that, I just don’t have the power to do it,” Owens replied.
“Everybody needs to be talking to their congressman and their senators about it,” the man said.
Owens said Val Verde County’s elected leadership in Washington “get it,” but added no one else seems to be paying attention.
Jake Rogers, another retired Border Patrol agent, asked the judge and sheriff to address claims on social
media that Texas can take action on the immigration and border issues on its own.
“We cannot just deport people. I get so tired of hearing people saying, ‘Texas has such-and-such laws, they should do this,’ Can you briefly explain what we can and can’t do?” Rogers asked.
Owens said, “I can tell you that we’ve looked into a couple of deals. Secede, break away from the federal government. We’ve been told we can’t. It’s illegal. We have looked at trying to deport, and we were told it’s illegal, can’t do it. And there are going to be people saying you can, you can, you can. But we’ve looked into this. In our attorney’s opinion – and this not our county attorney, but the people we hire from Austin – we can’t do it.”
He agreed with Rogers that “once (illegal immigrants) get the message that people are being sent back, they wouldn’t keep coming.”
“There have to be repercussions (for illegal entry). There have to be consequences. There are no consequences right now,” Owens agreed.
Owens said if the county could deport persons who enter the country illegally, it would be doing it.
“At the end of the day, our hands are just completely tied . . . It’s just so damn frustrating, folks,” Owens said.
One woman asked about reports that “a new wave” of immigrants is headed for the border.
“Hopefully the new big wave that is coming will not come here, and they will end up in Arizona,” Owens replied.
“There are all kinds of theories on that . . . I think the cartel violence in Matamoros and the Rio Grande Valley has picked up, and there are some thoughts (the immigrants) may go to Eagle Pass. Also, they’re thinking Yuma, Arizona. But I think Del Rio stands a very good chance of seeing something, in my opinion, because . . . FOX News sat on the river here for two months and showed how easy it was to come across, how safe it was, and those folks that are coming up, they’re watching the news too, but right now it’s just a guess as to which way they’re going to go,” Martinez added.
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