Residents in Sarco join fight against immigrant smuggling

The Victoria Advocate ^ | May 23, 2005 | Robin M. Foster

[TX Bluebonnet]

May 23, 2005 ROBIN M. FOSTER Victoria Advocate

SARCO - As residents in this rural ranching community struggle to stop the growing tide of illegal immigrants across their property, the U.S. Congress has recently received a comprehensive immigration reform act.

Sarco area residents in south Goliad County met with Judy McAda of U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa's district office at Beeville this week in their continued effort to stop the rising number of illegal immigrants passing through their property. McAda, front standing, said the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act offers a comprehensive approach to immigration reform.

Sarco, in south Goliad County, has become a drop off point for illegal immigrants moving between the Mexican border or coast to larger cities such as Houston or even Chicago, its residents say.

Property owners have found the encampments they use, their litter, even backpacks filled with gear for these travelers who get dropped off to await another driver. Bill Parmley escorted a Corpus Christi TV crew to a known encampment earlier this month. The reporter said he got lucky when about 12 illegals jumped up and ran from the site.

The smugglers who are transporting these mostly undocumented workers through Bee, Refugio, Goliad and Victoria counties are becoming more aggressive, say local law enforcement officers. While sheriffs in all these counties are responding to citizen demands to stop these illegal caravans, the problem, ultimately, is a federal one.

Sarco residents held their third community meeting Thursday to address the problem of illegal immigration.

Since February, Ken and Daphne Buelter, Kyle and Terry Metting and others in Sarco have brought together U.S. Border Patrol, local sheriffs and county judges, and, now, a representative of U.S. Congressman Ruben Hinojosa. That group of 50 who met Thursday asked Goliad County Attorney Rob Baiamonte how much force they can use to protect their property from these roving bands serves to underscore their frustration with border security and the immigration system as it exists today.

Their suggestions to Judy McAda, who works in Hinojosa's district office at Beeville, ranged from sealing the border to taking away the "giveaway programs" that illegal immigrants receive once they get to this country and from going after employers who hire them to providing more support for local law enforcement.

Goliad County Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza said he is spending an inordinate amount of time in Sarco. Even his civil process officer has been assigned to stepped up patrols. The department has pursued at least five loads of suspected illegal immigrants this month and turned over three "coyotes" - smugglers who are paid to escort the workers - to U.S. Border Patrol agents. The small department was unable to respond to one call because deputies were tied up with another group of illegals immigrants in Fannin, the sheriff said.

Refugio County Sheriff Earl Petropoulos, who attended last month's meeting in Sarco, said his department has detained about 70 illegals immigrants in the past six weeks. In March, a coyote attempted to run over one of his deputies and a Department of Public Safety officer who had stopped two other vehicles carrying about 40 illegal immigrants in the caravan. The officers shot out the tires of the coyote's vehicle but were unable to pursue the 20 who fled from it because they were trying to detain 20 from the stopped vehicle, Petropoulos said.

"For every one vehicle we apprehend, two get away, and that's just the ones we're encountering. It's a constant flow," Petropoulos said. "What's making it dangerous is the people who are transporting these illegals. They have no regard for safety or human life. They are carrying a money item, and that's all. The ones we've encountered in the last few months, the illegals are in very bad shape. They're starving, covered in blisters. They've had a rough time getting to this point. So, it almost becomes a human rights issue, too."

Bee County Sheriff Carlos Carrizales' department has detained 58 illegals between February and May, and Victoria County sheriff's deputies captured 47 early last week, using a helicopter to track them as they tried to flee into the brush.

After learning the magnitude of the problem in Sarco and surrounding areas on Thursday, McAda said it will take more than a piecemeal approach to address the nation's immigration problems. She said Hinojosa and others in congress are reviewing a comprehensive approach recently introduced by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Maine and three representatives.

A news release from Hinojosa says the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act addresses border security, state criminal alien assistance, an essential worker visa program, enforcement and other immigration issues.

"As we address real immigration reform, we need this type of balanced approach that imposes stiffer penalties on employers who violate labor laws, creates a new employment verification system and creates a comprehensive plan to enhance border security - all of which are addressed in this legislation," Hinojosa said in the news release.

McAda said she is scheduled to meet with residents at another ranch near Falfurrias this weekend to discuss a different side of the same issue - the inhumanity of the human smuggling trade. There, residents have seen coyotes drive over the legs of an immigrant so he can't walk and will die, she said.

Parmley believes the citizens of Sarco, working with local law enforcement, are beginning to make a dent in the number of illegal immigrants traveling along Farm-to-Market Road 2441.

Prior to February, he said he could set his watch on when the caravans would pass through - 7 a.m., noon-1 p.m., 9 p.m., then around midnight. He encouraged his neighbors, who have a telephone call chain they use to alert each other when suspected illegal immigrants are spotted, to get specific information about suspicious vehicles when they are seen in the area before calling local law enforcement.

Area sheriffs commend the U.S. Border Patrol's effort to retrieve the detainees they catch quickly and remove them to its processing center at the Corpus Christi station.

The U.S. Border Patrol is divided into 20 sectors across the nation. Five of them are in Texas. The Corpus Christi station is in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which includes Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo, Starr, Brooks, Kenedy, Kleberg, Nueces, San Patricio, Jim Wells, Bee, Refugio, Calhoun, Goliad, Victoria, DeWitt, Jackson and Lavaca counties.

Rogelio Cervantes, a supervisory patrol agent who works in public affairs, acknowledges that apprehensions in the sector are increasing. But that doesn't necessarily mean more illegals are getting across the border, he said.

"It's a combination of things. The agents are very good at what they do. We do have additional manpower and better technology to do it," Cervantes said.

Since October, the agency has apprehended 71,343 illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, Cervantes said. In the same time period, the agency has opened 754 smuggling cases involving 1,162 alien smugglers and 4,906 smuggled illegal immigrants, he said. The rest were deported to their homelands.

The numbers hint that fiscal 2005 will surpass 2004, which surpassed 2003.

About half of the apprehensions so far this year have been from countries other than Mexico, Cervantes said. Most of those are from Central and South America, he added.

Illegal immigrants with no other criminal history or prior deportation actions generally are charged with misdemeanor illegal entry charges. Those who have previously been charged face felony charges.

Cervantes said some immigrants who voluntarily agree to be returned to the border, can be deported several times and never be charged. The agents have the authority to determine when the first illegal entry charges are filed.

The smugglers, whether U.S. citizens, resident aliens or illegal aliens, face tougher charges, he said.

The sector's smuggling cases are being handled at federal courthouses in McAllen, Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Cervantes said.

Nationwide, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 1.16 million illegal immigrants in 2004 and has apprehended almost 690,000 so far this year, said Salvador Zamora, an assistant chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol in Washington D.C.

All of the detainees are being screened through the agency's IAFIS database - Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System - which uses fingerprints, a digital photo and other information to identify individuals with a criminal history, he said. Since 1994, the system has identified 85,000 such criminals, he said.

U.S. Border Patrol in March launched the second phase of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, Zamora said. It has increased personnel, aerial surveillance and technology to secure that 350-mile section of the border, which attributed to 50 percent of the 1.16 million apprehensions the agency had in 2004, he said.

When told of the citizens in Sarco, Zamora said their involvement "is precious" to the agency.

"It's what we appreciate wholeheartedly. We can more effectively understand and engage operations in those areas and respond in a proper manner," he said.

The next step for South Goliad County Concerned Citizens is to obtain crime watch signs for the area, Buelter told the group Thursday. The Texas Department of Transportation will not help, he said. That means residents will have to post them on their own property. He recommended they work up a sign in both English and Spanish.

"I'll dig post holes. I don't have a problem working to shut this situation down," he said.

Robin M. Foster is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-275-6319 or cueroadv@vicad.com.

[TX Bluebonnet]

Ping a ling

[TX Bluebonnet]

By the way, this was on the front page, above the fold of yesterday's Victoria Advocate

[commonasdirt]

As the Minutemen proved in April.......The point has been reached when only DIRECT citizen action will accomplish anything. If nothing else, a constant pressure of mere precense will keep them moving from spot to spot, making the area less desirable.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

"As we address real immigration reform, we need this type of balanced approach that imposes stiffer penalties on employers who violate labor laws, creates a new employment verification system and creates a comprehensive plan to enhance border security - all of which are addressed in this legislation," Hinojosa said in the news release.

Get real, the legislation is nothing but a scamnesty and will do little to stop or even slow illegal immigration. If anything it will encourage more to come over to get in on the deal.

[SwinneySwitch]

South Texans, doing the job the Feds won't do!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.

[Americanexpat]

Hinojosa isn't going to do a damn thing about this problem. In fact, he is already on record trying to ban the Minutemen from Texas borders.

71,000 people from this one small area of the border, that is enough people for a good sized town. Just mind boggling.

[TX Bluebonnet]

In the past, it seems the ranchers were in favor of illegal immigration because they benefitted from the cheap labor. However, it sounds like the tipping point is being reached. The problems are outweighing the benefits. Once the ranchers are against illegal immigration, who's going to be for it? (beside the illegal immigrants and Vincente Fox) Hinojosa better hop on board the train before it leaves the station.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

ping

[B4Ranch]

Already on record trying to ban the Minutemen from Texas borders.

Hinojosa | Barrientos | Ellis | Gallegos | Lucio | Madla | Shapleigh | Van de Putte | West, Royce | Whitmire | Zaffirini

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

Way to go Sarco!

[HiJinx]

Thanks, TX Bluebonnet...I was going to suggest you post this when you posted the link on the other thread. This kind of thing is happening all over the border region...in Texas, in Yuma, AZ, in San Diego...American citizens are just plain fed up with our employees not doing the job they were hired to do. It has really torqued us that we had to leave our own homes and jobs and travel to Arizona to show them what it was we expected them to do.

We're going to see a lot more of this, I'm thinking, before the higher-ups in the Border Patrol get a clue. We are not going to wait for bureaucratic decision cycles to work...we wnat results, and we want them now.

[NRA2BFree]

It's too bad land owners can't put out land mines. LOL I guess that's a little overkill, but I don't care. At this point, whatever it takes to stop them.

[Serenissima Venezia]

The point has been reached when only DIRECT citizen action will accomplish anything.

Both Arnold and Texas' governor Perry have said that as long as the federal government does nothing to prevent illegal immigration, private citizens will act. I wish other politicians would realize this as well (i.e., W).

[Calpernia]

bump to TEXAS!

[in the Arena]

BTTT

[janetgreen]

the legislation is nothing but a scamnesty and will do little to stop or even slow illegal immigration

McCain and Kennedy should be tarred and feathered and run out of Washington for proposing this, and it would be fine with me if GWB went with them.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

McCain and Kennedy should be tarred and feathered and run out of Washington for proposing this, and it would be fine with me if GWB went with them.

Kennedy should have been run out of town way back in the 60s. It's unbelievable he's still around selling the same old poison and that anyone would even listen to him.

[commonasdirt]

Here in AZ Napalitano NEVER will. At some point I am sure she will be bypassed

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Be Ever Vigilant!

Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!