Posted on 03/26/2006 4:12:28 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
EL PASO — Hidalgo County will not receive any additional funding for border security from the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition because, according to interim executive director Rick Glancey, the coalition is concerned about the county’s "accountability."
After hearing 16 presentations and budget proposals from the leaders of the border counties that make up the coalition, the coalition’s board, chaired by Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, entered executive session Thursday evening. They were to decide how $8.7 million in state and federal grant money would be dispersed for the counties’ programs to bolster border security.
When the board emerged with a piece of paper showing how much each county would get, there was a big "$0.00" next to Hidalgo and Jeff Davis counties.
"Everybody else got money," said Commander Daniel Garcia, who is in charge of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Illegal Immigrant Unit, which was established with the initial $367,500 "Operation Linebacker" award that came from the Governor’s Office at the prodding of the coalition.
"Half of these people didn’t have a budget. Why didn’t we get our money?"
According to Garcia and Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño, the sheriff’s department made a superb presentation showing the Criminal Illegal Immigrant Unit had already succeeded with 13 arrests in February — three of which were for murder — and nine arrests so far in March. The sheriff’s department has also worked harder to identify illegal aliens who were in the Hidalgo County Jail and has posted deputies on special federal task forces, Garcia said.
"They told me our county was non-compliant," he said.
The coalition wants deputies to act as if they are Border Patrol agents, Treviño said, furious at the decision of the coalition, of which he has been wary since the start.
Treviño did not attend the meeting. He was the only sheriff who did not attend and instead sent his commander and captain. It’s all the same, he said.
"I don’t have a one-horse town and three or four deputies to worry about," he said.
Treviño said he would stand his ground and not send his deputies to patrol the river. Deputies are not trained to do a Border Patrol agent’s job, nor do they have the resources, the time or the jurisdiction, he said.
"Operation Linebacker is extra patrols," Glancey said. "Everybody knew what is was when they came on board … No one here wants to be Border Patrol agents."
He said Operation Linebacker is not about putting money into detectives to "investigate crimes that have already occurred." The funding is supposed to be preventative.
"We control the next line of funding," Glancey said.
And indeed they do.
"The first $6 million, each county received an equal share," said Rachel Novier, spokeswoman for the Governor’s Office, referring to the initial $367,500 each county received in November. What exactly to do with the $3.8 million Operation Linebacker state grant, which is part of the $8.7 million that was divvied up on paper Thursday, is up to the coalition, Novier said.
"The following funding was given to the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition to use in the way that they see their expertise," she said.
"The TBSC has been directed to use that money to increase border security. That was the directive that came with the money."
The Governor’s Office has "full confidence" that the TBSC will use the money responsibly, she said.
Two other Valley sheriffs whose departments received Operation Linebacker funds could not be reached for comment Friday. Starr County Sheriff Rey Guerra did not return two phone calls placed to his cell phone after he said he would call the reporter right back "in a few minutes."
Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio could not be reached through his secretary.
And Zapata County Sheriff Gonzalez did not answer three messages left on his cell phone.
How is it that the Governor’s Office approved the initial plan for Hidalgo County’s Operation Linebacker funds, but the coalition now says the plans are not in line with their ideals? Treviño asked.
Law enforcement is predicated upon jurisdiction, geographical and obligatory, he said.
"To reach the common good, state and local guys do state and local things. County guys do county business and so on, so that we all become experts in a field. We don’t try to take away from each other. Each one is responsible for a piece of the pie," Treviño said.
Hidalgo County is not seceding from the union yet, but it could be a possibility in the future, the sheriff said, if the problems aren’t worked out.
Although Hidalgo County seemed to get a raw deal, the coalition got 10 new members Friday. Sheriffs from New Mexico, Arizona and California have joined up with the Texas sheriffs to form the Southwest Border Coalition.
"We are 26 sheriffs committed to the exact same thing: border security and how it affects the rural areas of the southwest border with Mexico," Glancey said.
The meeting was an "overwhelming success," he said.
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Cari Hammerstrom covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4424. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.
Excuse me Commander Garcia but that would be taxpayer money.
You did not get any grant money, Sheriff Treviño, because you are not willing to meet the obligations for border control that come with the grant.
Here is a link to the Texas constitution. It provides NO obligations for international border enforcement:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/toc.html
Section 4 of the US constitution says:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
I assume you are from Hidalgo Co. and just love illegal aliens!
I hope every County from the Pacific to Brownsville joins (excepting Hidalgo) and stops the illegals cold!
Gee, thanks for the conservative support. No, I am not from Hidalgo. And I do not "just love illegal aliens". I am a Texan that believes that the laws must be followed. Not changed or subverted for political expediency. State, county, and city law enforcement is prohibited BY LAW from assuming the duties of federal officers and the military. The federal government can not compel county agencies to assume CBP duties, ICE duties, or FBI duties. Get it?
The Feds aren't compelling them to do it and there is nothing from stoping them from doing it on their own.
The Federal Government aren't doing anything to stop the illegals and in fact are encouraging them.
I don't csre who does it, including private citizens, as long as every illegal is run out of the country and there is no guest worker program.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/sections/cn000100-000900.html
"The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, from all unreasonable seizures or searches, and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as near as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation." This is important, because it says "the people", not "citizens". Thus, the state must show cause, by oath or affirmation, to search a "person" in the state of Texas. This is what stops our law enforcement from grabbing any person that looks different and forcing them to prove citizenship. The federal government is failing here, not Texas. Private citizens may perform the duties that the Minutemen performed (and I support them) by observing and reporting- to the proper federal agency- suspicious activity. To interact with, touch, detain, threaten, or coerce a person simply because YOU think that they are illegal; will get a private citizen thrown under the Texas judicial system. With good reason. Because that is the LAW.
Go to hell Bushbot!
Wow. I gotta quit quoting the Texas constitution, and the US constitution; because that makes me a Bushbot. This is just too rich. Please take a gander at my posting history. If there is too much fawning over the president on any posts, please link it. I am going to change my password anyway, because one of our children is a huge Bush supporter; and might have made a post without my knowledge.
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