Border Star: Organizing against organized crime


(photo)Paul R. San Miguel, a deputy Sheriff in Goliad, points to a map of Goliad to show the wide area sheriff's deputies cover as a part of a team on Operation Border Star. (Christina Burke)

(photo)Paul R. San Miguel, works drug interdiction and looks for undocumented immigrants while on shift as a Goliad County Sheriff's Deputy in conjunction with Operation Border Star. (Christina Burke)
Photo Credit: Christina Burke/victoria Advocate
Paul R. San Miguel, a deputy sheriff in Goliad, shows the vast area covered in conjunction with Operation Border Star.

BY TARA BOZICK - TBOZICK@VICAD.COM
August 23, 2008 - 12:00 a.m.

A constant flow of money, guns and illegal immigrants spill across the Texas border.

A clampdown of major state thoroughfares – U.S. highways 77 and 59, for example – increasingly push smugglers to ranch land and county roads.

In response last year, Texas created Operation Border Star – an intense multi-agency effort that attacks crime in targeted regions affected by the dangerous spillovers.

Sheriff’s coalitions work with the U.S. Border Patrol and border-area police departments – and receive state funding to do so.

Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor is a key player in this alliance.

He was the driving force in forming the Coastal Corridor security sector, one of five state sectors that receives special attention and Border Star funding.

O’Connor also played a major role in creating a Joint Operations Intelligence Center in Victoria, said Steve McGraw, director of Texas Homeland Security.

Critics say the operation is failing. Instead of curbing illegal flows, critics say joint efforts simply push the crimes into even more dangerous areas – and force immigrants and smugglers to take desperate measures.

They say joining sheriffs with border agents increases the fears of immigrants, who won’t report crime if it’s likely they’ll be deported.

Everyone agrees these crimes, and the state’s vast, porous border, need more federal attention. As McGraw noted, the state’s border is only as safe as its weakest link.

Texas’ border covers about 65 percent of the country’s land union with Mexico. The state is a transshipment center for organized crime. Steep profits attract organized gangs.

“You’re seeing a militarization of the mafia,â€