By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said as long as things don’t change in Washington, D.C., immigration issues along the U.S.-Mexico border won’t change either.
Martinez spoke with the 830 Times about the county’s ongoing immigration situation during an interview Friday.
“Last week, Eagle Pass’ numbers were holding at about 1,100 (illegal immigrants) a day, while we were holding at about 400 (a day), so they’re still coming through. Right now, our issue is that the DPS (Texas Department of Public Safety), has minimal presence here, just regular staff,” Martinez said, adding that many of the troopers whose presence had become commonplace in Del Rio over the past six months were sent back to their home districts because many of them contracted COVID-19.
“They sent them home because a lot of them came down with COVID, so they wanted to get everyone healthy, so they took nine to 12 days off, sent them back home, so some of the troopers back home were sick, some of the troopers they sent down here were sick, so they sent them all back (to their) home(s) to get well, and the ones that were healthy went back to their home (districts) to relieve the ones that were sick,” the sheriff explained.
Martinez said the DPS troopers began moving back into Val Verde County over the past weekend.
“So we’ve had an increase in calls, illegals coming through people’s property, from the Pepper Lane area all the way to 349, that loop that goes into Ciudad Acuña out by the dam,” Martinez said.
He said there is also still activity in the western and northern parts of the county.
“I know things are happening out there. I think there was a call yesterday (Thursday), that one of our deputies responded to up along the Pandale Road, three or four miles up, and actually I’d gone up there about two weeks ago and found two pickup locations that were littered with clothing and medication and empty bottles of water and Gatorade, stuff like that, right off of that road,” he said.
Martinez said he passed on the locations of the two suspected pickup sites to his patrol deputies and to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“At the time, the DPS was having troopers working on the north end of that (road), where it hooks up with 1024 past Pandale,” Martinez said.
As for the rest of 2022, Martinez said he expects the flow of persons crossing the border illegally will continue.
“If this administration doesn’t change anything, we’re going to continue seeing more of the same stuff, just like it was last year,” he said.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
