Karen Gleason
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez spoke about the county’s ongoing immigrant situation Tuesday afternoon while on a patrol run on Vega Verde Road.
“I come down here every chance I get, to see what’s going on out in the field,” Martinez said as he surveyed a length of the Rio Grande from a bluff above the storied river.
Martinez on Friday told the 830 Times his deputies, who also patrol the length of Vega Verde Road along the river, are more and more frequently encountering immigrants who enter the country illegally by crossing the Rio Grande at various points.
Those immigrants, the sheriff said at the time, immediately wave down the patrolling deputies to give themselves up.
“This is still the situation today, but it seems to be more prevalent during the early morning hours that they’re coming across,” Martinez said.
The geography and landscape of the riparian corridor along the Rio Grande between the Del Rio International Bridge and the Amistad Dam provide natural barriers in the form of high limestone bluffs and dense carrizo thickets, but in other places give immigrants easy points of access.
“They are crossing at places like the old Bordelon and Vick properties, what we call them, where the river is a little more shallow than in other places, but right now I’m noticing, and I don’t know if they’re releasing more water from the dam, but it’s got a pretty good little current going and the water level is a little bit higher,” the sheriff added, gesturing toward the water.
