By Karen Gleason
COMSTOCK – County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton says county taxpayers can’t continue “picking up the tab” for the federal government’s failures.
Nettleton, who is a small business owner and who ranches in Val Verde County, told county residents here Wednesday that the current immigration surge is a problem that just keeps getting bigger and more expensive.
“We’ve never had the problems we have today. When the federal government abandoned us, and the state of Texas decided to send (additional law enforcement) down here, what they didn’t send was money, and what people don’t realize is that every time the DPS arrests somebody, Val Verde County taxpayers pick up the tab for that.
“It’s costing you all, right now, about $7,000 a day, and at the current rate, we will spend over a quarter of a million dollars. If this continues, and we have to expand the jail by putting in tents and stuff to house ’em, that cost will be a quarter of a million dollars a month to deal with this issue, and that is not a state issue and not a local issue,” Nettleton said.
Nettleton said immigration can’t be considered a Democratic or a Republican issue.
“I’ve listened to that argument, and I’ve been a Republican my whole life, and this argument doesn’t fly. The Republicans had control of the House, the Senate and the White House, and they did nothing on immigration reform. We did nothing on amnesty reform, did nothing to fix the problem, and to turn around and blame everybody else for it . . . both sides are wrong. (Federal elected officials) no longer work for us. They no longer represent the people, and not just on the federal level, but also on the state level,” Nettleton charged.
“We are the ones who send our elected officials up there, and they need to represent us, and they need to understand the costs. If you’re going to dump this in our laps, then send us the resources. If we have to put up this tent system at our jail, we’re looking at spending $250,000 a month to function. This community can’t sustain that. We cannot sustain that,” Nettleton said.
The commissioner also said there are not enough federal judges to deal with the numbers of immigrants entering the country.
“At some point they’re going to create an amnesty program and make them all legal, and they’re going to vote, and that’s how they’re going to keep control. That’s the end game here, if we’re going to be honest,” he said.
Nettleton said local residents must be heard.
“The people have to stand up and say we’ve had enough, and we have to elect people who know what they’re doing,” he added.
Nettleton said most of the problems along the border could be fixed by enforcing the laws already on the books.
“We had a conversation in commissioners court of putting all of them on a bus and dropping them off at the White House. We can’t do that, but Washington has to realize that at some point this is going to come to their back door, too, because we can no longer deal with it, and we can no longer afford to deal with it. That’s the message that Washington and the state of Texas needs to hear,” Nettleton said.
