By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. said changes to immigration policy must be enacted on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Owens made his comments during an interview with the 830 Times earlier this week.
“It starts with the Mexican government. That’s where it starts. Our government, their government, it doesn’t matter. The start is in Mexico, because the migrants are coming through Mexico. So, my opinion is, our president needs to put pressure on the Mexican government for them to stop. They need to stop allowing them in,” Owens said.
Owens said he personally interviewed a number of migrants in the camp under the Del Rio International Bridge.
“We visited with several immigrants down there over the last five or six days. A lot of them have been away from Haiti for a long time. The majority of the ones I spoke to didn’t just come over from Haiti. They’ve been gone for six months to two years, and the reason that we’ve got such a big influx of these individuals now is that everybody that I talked to said they had been waiting in different places in Mexico for a permit or a way to travel, and then they were told, you don’t need a permit, but you need to get to the (U.S.-Mexico) border.
“That’s not hearsay. Everybody I talked to directly told me they were waiting for permits, and they were told, wherever they were at, that you don’t need it anymore, you just need to get to the Texas border, and then some of them said they paid for a bus ticket and some of them said they didn’t have to pay for anything, that there were buses provided. And again, this isn’t hearsay. This is something I was told over and over, directly by the immigrants,” Owens said.
The county judge said the story was consistent among different groups of immigrants.
“We talk to Haitians. We talked to a person from Honduras. We talked to people from Venezuela, and we talked to somebody from Cuba. Those are the four nationalities, where I can say that I was part of the conversation, either listening to or actually visiting with, not hearsay,” he said.
Owens said he spoke with one woman from Venezuela who had left her country on Sept. 10 and was on U.S. soil Sept. 15.
“And then we talked to some people from Haiti who hadn’t been in Haiti for two years, and who had had a child en route,” Owens said.
Owens also voiced his frustration with the Biden administration.
“In visiting with Secretary Mayorkas when he was here, we’re telling him the same stuff we told him months ago: You’ve got to stop it, and in order to stop it, there has to be a deterrent, and the deterrent is to send the migrants back.
“The Mexican government, they need to assume responsibility and quit letting all these migrants come through their country, quit letting them get to the border,” Owens said.
The judge also said the migrant crisis was a storm local leaders saw approaching.
“We knew this was coming. At the end of the day, we knew this was coming. In January, February, we knew that we were going to have a problem. Two months ago, we knew that there were 25,000 people on their way. The finger-pointing and everything needs to quit and we need to do a better job of working together,” Owens said.
He said although the city, county, state and federal governments are now working in concert to resolve the issue of the migrant camp under the bridge, he said the spirit of cooperation and joint problem solving must continue.
“Moving forward, pressure has to be put on the Mexican government for them to do their job, and it’s going to be different facets: Mexico has to do a better job of not letting them through their country. Our administration, this country has rules and laws in place. If you come across the water, you’re illegal. There has to be a process for them to come in legally. If it’s not fast enough, then you need to speed it up, but right now, if you come across the water, you need to be sent back,” Owens said.
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