Karen Gleason
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. on Wednesday again advised members of the community they may be seeing more migrants around Del Rio in the days and weeks to come.
Owens posted a video about the situation on his Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lewis.owens.733, late Wednesday.
Owens told the 830 Times the video is largely in response to an executive order issued earlier Wednesday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
In his introductory remarks, Owens called the new order “a little bit disturbing.”
Owens referenced what he called “the meat” of the governor’s order, where Abbott ordered that “no person, other than a federal, state or local law enforcement official, shall provide ground transportation to a group of migrants who have been detained by CBP for crossing the border illegally or would have been subject to expulsion under the (federal) Title 42 order.”
“Folks, what that means is that our NGO (the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition migrant processing center) here, as of tonight, they’re closed, and they will not be accepting any more individuals, starting tomorrow, at their facility on Las Vacas Street. They work to get these individuals out of our community, so when Border Patrol begins to turn (the migrants) loose, they’re just going to turn them loose in our community, probably at Stripes (on Veterans and 15th Street), because that’s where they were able to get transportation out,” the judge said.
“I hope something changes tomorrow, but it seems like Greyhound or anybody else . . . unless they can get a plane ticket, the way I’m reading it, (the migrants) are going to be stuck in our community,” he added.
Owens said he believed in the next few days, at least, Del Rioans may see even more migrants wandering around the city than they did during the Memorial Day weekend “because now there’s no way for them to get out of our community.”
Owens said the governor’s order references an incident that occurred in La Joya, Texas, where a migrant family ate at a local restaurant, knowing they were sick.
The county judge again sharply criticized “policies of our federal government and the policies of our president” as “screwed up.”
“People have asked me if I back Gov. Abbott and what he’s trying to do, and I do, but we’re going to have to look into this (new order) more tomorrow,” Owens said.
“But with this one paragraph, though, I think these individuals are not going to be able to leave our county, so what the hell are we supposed to do with them?” he said.
“I don’t think he thought this one through . . . I really hope, Gov. Abbott, that you re-think this one. There’s got to be something else we can do, other than hold them in our county, and if you have a plan, I wish you would share it with us, because this one paragraph really scares me,” the judge added.
