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Sheriff to use $375,000 state grant to protect border

Brandi Grissom
Austin Bureau

SAN ANTONIO -- El Paso County will soon get about $375,000 in state grants to beef up security along the border, Sheriff Leo Samaniego said Monday.

"It's just something to get us going," Samaniego said.

Gov. Rick Perry last month awarded the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, a group of 16 border county sheriffs, $6 million for Operation Linebacker. The border security plan calls for more sheriffs' deputies to patrol the border and act as a second line of defense to Border Patrol.

Some immigrant advocates, though, worry the program will turn deputies into de facto border patrol agents and cause intimidated undocumented immigrants to avoid all contact with law enforcement.

All totaled, the border sheriffs estimate their security plan, which they hope will reduce illegal immigration and crime associated with it, will cost about $35 million. They've called on Congress to provide the funds and are awaiting lawmakers' decision on a bill by U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, that would provide the money.

Although Perry has often said border security is a federal issue, he said he announced his $9.7 million border initiative last month because Congress wasn't acting quickly enough. The remaining $3.7 million of his plan will go to the Texas Department of Safety and other border safety plans.

Samaniego said he hopes the state grant funds will allow him to pay overtime for enough officers to add as many as 12 units to each of his shifts through February.

By then, Congress should have decided on Culberson's bill, he said. If Congress refuses to fund the program, Samaniego said he will be forced to stop the increased patrols.

Most days, only three sheriff's officers patrol the area from San Elizario to Tornillo and north to Interstate 10.

Samaniego said he will focus on adding deputies in that portion of the county, where he said residents have reported hundreds of undocumented immigrants trespassing on their land, damaging their property and demanding use of the telephone.

"Some of them say they wake up in the morning and they look out the window, and they're surrounded by illegals all over the place," Samaniego said.

Until recently, sheriff's department spokesman Rick Glancey said many residents would not report such incidents because they feared retaliation. Because of the border sheriffs' efforts to increase visibility and awareness, he said many are coming forward with their stories.

"They are painting a picture that we did not see based on crime statistics previously. There's a tremendous amount of destruction of property -- fear," he said.

The border sheriffs hope their presence alone will deter immigrants from crossing the border illegally and reduce drug and human trafficking.

Samaniego said a number of times that his deputies will not act as border patrol agents. "We're not going to do anything that we haven't been doing forever," he said.

Warren Ivey, who owns a farm in Tornillo just about a mile from the border, said several groups of 20 to 50 undocumented immigrants cross his land every day.

Although he said he and his family don't feel unsafe, he believes additional uniformed officers will deter undocumented immigrants, because he saw a reduction in the number who crossed his property while the Minutemen were patrolling. Now that they're gone, he said traffic has increased again.

"If they could get more people down here, I think it would help out a whole bunch," Ivey said.

But some local immigrant advocates said whether they call themselves border patrol agents or not, when sheriffs get money from the governor earmarked to target undocumented immigrants, undocumented El Pasoans will begin to fear the deputies.

"When you set up a program specifically designed, specifically aimed at undocumented people, how do you at the same time say you're not going to function as border patrol?" said Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House.

That fear, he said, will likely cause undocumented immigrants to avoid reporting crimes and to shy away from all law enforcement. He also worried the program would increase racial profiling by sheriff's deputies looking for undocumented immigrants.

State Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso, said although the increased patrol along the border will likely deter illegal immigration in some areas, the problem is one that can only be stemmed with reform of U.S. immigration policy.

"You can put as many sheriffs there as you want, and we're still not going to put a dent into the problem because they will find ways to come," she said.


Highlights
Highlights from Gov. Rick Perry's border security initiative:



$3 million in grant funds to hire additional local law enforcement personnel.

$3 million in grant funds to finance local officer overtime.

$3.7 million in grant funds to support local, multi-agency law enforcement initiatives.

Four rapid deployment teams, consisting of 50 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers each, will be established to quickly react to hot-spots in direct support of Operation Linebacker.

The Department of Public Safety will permanently assign 54 criminal investigators to the border in support of local law enforcement agencies.

$1.2 million to Laredo to complete the purchase and deployment of a radio system that will serve as the communications backbone for the entire region.

Develop a regional response plan through partnerships with Mexican communities to minimize loss of life and damage to property if a catastrophic event occurs in the border region.

Enlist the National Guard to provide homeland security support, training and exercises without militarizing the border.