Posted on 07/08/2005 11:38:55 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Sheriffs from Victoria and three nearby counties appealed Thursday to Sen. John Cornyn for federal dollars to help them deal with the flood of illegal immigrants pouring through the area.
"One word can sum this whole thing up: Overwhelming," Goliad County Sheriff Robert De La Garza told Cornyn. "I'm hoping that the federal government will do something for us."
Refugio County Sheriff Earl Petropoulas put it this way: "We don't have the money to do the job."
The senator pledged that he would try to help.
"More funding is a real possibility," he said. "We'd be delighted to try to get you some of those resources."
At the invitation of Victoria County Sheriff T. Michael O'Connor, Cornyn, a Texas Republican, sat down at the Victoria County Sheriff's Office with the four sheriffs, landowners, agriculture representatives and others for a half-hour roundtable discussion on immigration problems.
"I'm here to find out what I can do to support your efforts and take that back to Congress to lead the charge to try to fix our broken border and immigration system," Cornyn said.
The sheriffs said dealing with the illegal immigrants puts a major strain on their staffs, their jails and their departmental budgets.
Petropoulas asked for federal money for equipment, jail costs and additional deputies that could be cross-trained as Border Patrol agents.
The sheriffs and the senator agreed that the Border Patrol is understaffed in the Victoria region. "They're stretched too thin," said Bee County Sheriff Carlos Carrizales Jr.
Sheriff O'Connor said he supported the idea of federal funding to cross-train deputies/Border Patrol officers who could focus on the immigration issue.
O'Connor said if federal funding could be made available to the four counties for cross-trained officers, the counties could join together to form an immigration task force that could respond across the area as needed.
O'Connor also wants a Border Patrol station to be opened in Victoria "to work this very intense area" and is willing to provide space at the sheriff's office for the station.
He displayed a map showing arrows converging on Victoria from major illegal immigrant routes through Laredo, McAllen and Matamoros. He said if a map of the Victoria area were to be marked in all the places illegals have been encountered "it would blacken the map. They're funneling right through here."
The sheriffs also asked for changes in federal policies regarding releasing illegal immigrants turned over to them by local authorities. "It's a catch-and-release program," said O'Connor.
At the end of the discussion, Cornyn said: "This is not the end. This is the beginning of a good working relationship."
The sheriffs seemed encouraged.
"I felt good leaving the meeting," said Goliad's De La Garza. "The senator looked me straight in the eye and told me he's going to help."
O'Connor said afterward that over the last six months since his election he has gone to Washington D.C. and to Houston to speak to federal immigration officials about the help needed in the Victoria area. The officials were receptive, he said, but didn't act. That's when he wrote to Cornyn asking for the meeting.
"Knowledge is power and the more he knows and hears first hand, the more he can articulate to the people in Washington about our concerns," said O'Connor.
During the roundtable discussion, Ned Miester of the Texas Farm Bureau appealed to Cornyn to not take any action that would lead to the closing of the border, saying farmers need the workers who come up from Mexico.
Meister said a Lubbock squash farmer is currently losing up to $10,000 a day because he doesn't have enough pickers to harvest his crop.
Cornyn said the solution isn't to deploy the military or to build a wall, and agreed that some immigrants "do jobs Americans are not always willing to do."
He said a balance must be struck between economic and security needs.
"Today's explosion in London was a reminder that this is still a very dangerous world," the senator said.
Landowner Morgan O'Connor agreed, saying the nature of the immigrants has changed from those simply seeking jobs to a more dangerous element, including drug traffickers, human smugglers, even terrorists.
She said her parents are afraid to be alone at their ranch anymore because of the illegals, and that the family no longer lets its children ride horseback or work alone on the ranch.
O'Connor said the problem has become a constitutional issue because Texans are being deprived of the right to enjoy their property.
Others sitting at the table included John Kaspar, chief deputy in Victoria County; Dale Fowler of the Victoria Economic Development Corp.; David Edwards, a San Patricio County rancher; and Vincent Heard, a rancher in Refugio and Goliad counties.
Several citizens who wanted to attend the meeting, after reading in the paper that it would be an open meeting, were turned away. Cornyn's office had told the Advocate earlier that the meeting would be open to the public. Sheriff O'Connor on Wednesday reported that the meeting would be closed. The Thursday meeting was not open to the public.
Greg Bowen is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6519 or gbowen@vicad.com.
Man, with the beer I just opened, beans and tortillas sound good right about now.
I would.
I'd also work construction. I've always wanted to. I figure it'd teach me a skill I could truly use for myself.
But who's gonna hire a woman - even a straplin' broad like me - to schlep wheelbarrows full of concrete?
(I trust no FReepers doubt I can schlep a wheelbarrow full of concrete.)
Its called technology. Any other topic dealing with economics and the ol' buggy whip phrase would be used in a nanosecond by you liberals, but when it comes to illegal immigration you revert to the feudal mentality.
If automation replaces all the jobs that illegals are now doing how does that help you get a job?
I have. It's hard, dirty, dangerous, hot work that's not anything like engaging in a home repair project. And it's day after day after miserable day with bosses bitching at you for not working faster, for making mistakes and wasting materials. It's putting up with doped up, drunk, sociopathic co-workers whose "mistakes" could cost you an eye or hand.
It's putting up with idiots who are too lazy to tag a breaker they switch off or even worse, ones who ignore the tag and switch the electricity on while you're installing the clothes dryer outlet.
Get a job in a mall.
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