Valley Authorities Forced to Adapt to Range of Prisoners

Reported by: Manuel De La Rosa
Last Update: 6/10 7:16 pm

Valley authorities say they must adapt when they get prisoners from all over the globe. Many are being held in local jails after they get caught trying to cross the border illegally.

Earlier this week, three people from Romania were caught in the Lower Valley. CHANNEL 5 NEWS did some digging, wanting to know how local law enforcement handle illegals that are caught on this side of the border.

Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio says they house as many as 300 prisoners for federal authorities. Many times it's people who are caught here illegally. There are those from Latin America, but they have housed people from China, Pakistan and India.

"They try to make it to Houston or Dallas. They probably don't know where that is. That's where they are heading, and they get picked up by the Border Patrol or they're brought here by other law enforcement agencies," says Lucio.

The sheriff says cooking for them can be difficult, but communicating with these inmates poses a challenge to his staff. Sometimes, they must get creative to talk to these prisoners.

"We get people. Like there is a Chinese restaurant, we usually call them. The owner he can translate for us. He is very good about it. We have people here from Pakistan. They have learned the English language. They are successful businessmen here. They can communicate with these people," says Lucio.

The biggest challenge is dealing with their cultures. They talk to their consulates to understand who they are. Some Arab nations require certain religious traditions.

"So we really don't have too much of a problem with that. If they need a rug because they need to sit down and pray facing east or whatever, we try to accommodate as far as that goes," says Lucio.

It's something the sheriff never thought he would have to do when he took over this office 15 years ago.

The sheriff says if they have too many communication problems with these prisoners, federal authorities will transfer them to facilities where they have translators.

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