By Karen Gleason
Concerns over the area’s ongoing immigration crisis took center stage during a meeting Monday between local ranchers and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales.
Gonzales (District 23; R-San Antonio) met with about a dozen Val Verde County ranchers inside the cavernous warehouse of Val Verde Wool and Mohair on Converse Street.
Gonzales, in jeans, boots and rolled up shirtsleeves, welcomed those attending the meeting and encouraged them to discuss any concerns they had, even if those concerns dealt with local or state issues.
One landowner told Gonzales he received a first-ever call from the Border Patrol recently.
“They said they had detected that eight aliens (immigrants) had entered our ranch and that they had no one to respond and asked us to be cautious. That’s never happened in the 30 years I’ve lived here,” he said.
“My mother-in-law lives out there by herself, and she’s past 90 . . . Before we could call the Border Patrol and they would respond right away . . . The federal government has the responsibility to protect our border. Obviously that’s not happening, and it’s putting us – my mother-in-law – in jeopardy. Joe Biden took an oath to protect and defend the laws and the Constitution of the United States. Is there any talk that he has violated his oath of office?” the rancher asked.
“My district is 820 miles of Texas-Mexico border. Over 40 percent of our southern border is in my district, District 23 . . . Everywhere I go, border security is the number one issue. It’s not just Republicans, not just Democrats. Everybody’s impacted, and everybody’s telling me the exact same thing,” Gonzales said.
He added he and his family have lived in the region all his life “and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”
Gonzales said he has been active on this issue from the moment he took office.
“My first bill was about border security. The bulk of my time gets spent on that topic,” he said.
Gonzales said he has traveled throughout his district, meeting with farmers, ranchers, law enforcement officers and citizens and warned, “Things are getting worse and they’re going to get even more worse.”
Gonzales said 40 percent of Border Patrol agents are no longer in the field, but working to process immigrants actively seeking asylum.
“We also need more immigration judges on the border. Right now, you get processed and it’s two years before you get a court date. That’s insane. Who’s going to show up for that and how does that prevent anybody who doesn’t qualify from going down this path?” he said.
He estimated 90 percent of the immigrants coming into the U.S. don’t qualify for asylum.
“The bottom line is, we need help now,” Gonzales told the ranchers.
Gonzales urged the ranchers present to track their expenses arising from the immigration crisis.
“Ideally there will come a time when the federal government, the state or the county reimburses for those,” he said.
He said his bipartisan Border Solutions Act would take Border Patrol agents “out of the processing business and puts them back in the field.”
“It also would add 150 immigration judges to the equation and the third thing is, these children get taken and processed and taken to an HHS facility and later connected to their sponsor in this country. Those children are forgotten and whether you agree with it or not, there is a generation of children coming over that we have no idea where they’re going. As a father that infuriates me and that scares me. Who is fighting for them? This bill would require HHS to track those children,” he said.
Gonzales said the bill has bipartisan support in the House and Senate.
Gonzales said he would also like to see asylum claims processed in immigrants’ countries of origin.
“We have to update our immigration system so that it makes sense and we have to secure our border,” he told the ranchers.
Gonzales handed out contact information and asked each of the ranchers to stay in touch with his office, pledging to return to the border in the near future.
