Thread: THE COST OF CHASING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

THE COST OF CHASING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Some people wonder why so many resources are devoted to catching illegals

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/ ... 22481.html
September 16, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY DAVID TEWES - VICTORIA ADVOCATE

Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O'Connor calls it the fatal funnel.

It's the portion of Victoria County where U.S. 77 from the Rio Grande Valley and U.S 59 from Laredo merge, forming a funnel shape on the map.

At the center of that funnel has been a whirlwind of activity involving the sheriff's office dealing with smugglers carrying human cargoes along those routes from Mexico and Central America.

Sometimes those immigrants end up dead, smothered in the back of a tractor-trailer rig or drowned in the Guadalupe River trying to escape pursuing officers.

The manpower, money and other resources needed to deal with the issue have stirred up their own storm. Some question why so much emphasis is put on chasing immigrants, when community policing needs already place a drain on those same resources.

"When you have a large number of officers and a multi-agency response, that's a lot of man-hours," said Stephen Tyler, the Victoria County district attorney. "That's not for free. I have several major felonies where it's difficult to get that amount of resources."

Lewis Neitsch, Victoria's mayor pro tem, said he also has to question the use of city resources after watching an immigrant chase near his business a few weeks ago. He said he was in awe as the city responded with five police cars, two large fire trucks, an ambulance and a mobile command center to help the sheriff's office.

"My question is whether it was needed," Neitsch said. "I still haven't gotten an answer why they were there in the first place."

He said he was particularly concerned about two large fire trucks worth $500,000 each being tied up for several hours.

"Does that leave the city unprotected in some area if something were to happen?" Neitsch asked. "I could see one truck. But two of them?"

O'Connor responds that the sheriff's department can't ignore the problem.

"This is organized crime," he said. "Today it may be trafficking people. Tomorrow it may be narcotics. The next day it may be weapons going south."

O'Connor has unsuccessfully asked the commissioners court for money to buy 18 new vehicles and to hire 19 more employees. He said he needs those resources to provide adequate police protection to keep the community safe.

Tyler said that's where planning of resources becomes essential, especially when it comes to the immigrant issue. "The more limited they are, the more important it is to prioritize their use."

But O'Connor said immigrant issue alone is not the problem.

"The need for additional officers is by no means based on the immigrant issue," he said. "We don't have the authority to contend with immigrations laws. That's the federal government."

O'Connor said that's why his deputies do not specifically target immigrants being transported through the county, although the number of immigrant incidents is up significantly.

When the officer, during the course of a routine patrol, sees a traffic violation and tries to stop the vehicle, smugglers flee, he said. Officers pursue, frequently leading to the discovery of the immigrants.

Smuggler vehicles often have expired inspection stickers, burned out headlights or speed, he said.

"The only way I could avoid dealing with the smuggling issue is to tell my officers to stay here at the office and just go to calls for services," he said. "What that doesn't help with is crime prevention activities."

County Judge Don Pozzi said he has heard the comments from residents concerned about what they believe to be O'Connor's aggressive pursuit of immigrants.

"But that is his department," he said. "We don't tell him how to run it, except with respect to budgetary constraints."

Former Sheriff Mike Ratcliff said he had fewer officers to deal with immigrants than O'Connor has today. But he said even if he would have had more officers, he wouldn't have put more emphasis on the problem.

"Generally, during my administration a response to reports of illegal immigrants would be predicated on a crime having been committed," Ratcliff said. "But generally, we avoided the actual traffic stop situation, unless there was some reason to stop the vehicle."

Just the normal calls from county residents were enough to keep his officers busy, and chasing smugglers hampers the ability to answer those calls, he said.

Another problem with chasing smugglers is that too often the men, women and children being smuggled flee into the brush. That endangers their lives and possibly the lives of county residents that come into contact with them, Ratcliff said.

On the surface, O'Connor said, it appears immigration issues should be something handled solely by the federal government. Unfortunately, he said, it's not that simple.

"What they put back on is: 'You're the first responders. Don't think the trafficking aspect isn't an initiative for homeland security and for those who want to do harm to us.' When they put it that way, they're right," O'Connor said.

David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com

I believe that our presidents who did not support securing our borders should have to pay for finding illegals. They have broken the law by adiding and abetting illegals for the past twenty years. The personal resources of people like Kennedy, McCain, Bushes, Clintons, Should all be taken by the federal government and used to pay for securing our borders and finding every illegal, starting with anyone who has committed a crime other than just crossing the border. Individuals who have commiteed ID thief, SSAN fraud, murder, rape, etc. should not have a right to appeal. Just depot them.