Free Republic

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has secured $4.85 million in funding to be used by border sheriffs to stop drug and human trafficking. The money is coming from the fiscal year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill. It will help border sheriffs pay for overtime, hire additional deputies, and purchase equipment. This project supports Operation Linebacker, an initiative of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition. "Our law enforcement personnel along the border are regularly under assault, and drug and human traffickers continue to threaten the safety of our communities," Hutchison said in a news release. "Sheriffs patrolling the border need additional reinforcements to...

The Webb County Sheriff’s Department captured more than 700 undocumented immigrants and made 18 drug arrests in the first six months of Operation Linebacker, a state and federally funded program intended to bolster security and combat drug activity, violence and terrorism along the Texas-Mexico border.“We have 18 drug arrests and 700-something illegal immigrants?” said an incredulous County Judge Louis Bruni after hearing about the report. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, apparently shared Bruni’s sentiments, telling the El Paso Times, which compiled numbers for all the border counties, that “the statistics say that the operation has been, in effect, an immigration...

EL PASO — Worried about possible racial profiling in El Paso County, a South Texas lawmaker has asked Gov. Rick Perry to specify how the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition is permitted to spend nearly $10 million in border security grant money. Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, sent Perry a letter Friday expressing concern that El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego is using a $376,500 grant to run roadblocks and raids aimed at ferreting out illegal immigrants. Hinojosa asked the governor to detail rules for the “appropriate use of funds for Operation Linebacker.” Hinojosa expressed concern that people are being detained...

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...

Motivated by an important issue — but bloated by self-importance — the Minutemen patrolled the border to stem the tide of illegal immigration. President Bush called them "a vigilante group," a potentially dangerous intrusion into the realm of law enforcement officials. That was almost a year ago, and his words ring truer than ever. Already unnecessary, the Minutemen have been rendered even more superfluous, thanks to a state program dubbed Operation Linebacker, which has allocated nearly $10 million for border security since December. With much of the money going to bolster sheriff's departments from Brownsville to El Paso, the program...

FORT HANCOCK — The threat to Johnny Schuller came Jan. 25, two days after a border incursion — allegedly involving the Mexican army — put this remote farming town on center stage in the international drug war. "There were three individuals driving a car with Mexican plates. They pulled up to my residence way out in the country," recalled the Hudspeth County deputy, 61, who stands 6 feet 4 inches and weighs 260 pounds. "My wife was out walking. The driver called her by name. He told her in broken English to tell me to stay off the river," said...

More than $1 million spent to help incarcerate, investigate rising number of illegal aliens who commit crimes in area McALLEN - Federal and state governments have funneled more than $1 million into Hidalgo County over the past three months to help incarcerate and investigate the rising number of illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the area. Hidalgo County is so inundated with undocumented immigrants who commit felonies and misdemeanors that more money came in from Washington last year than it did for some entire states so local authorities could get a handle on the costs associated with their incarceration. The...

LAREDO — On the heels of national publicity for thwarting an eye-opening drug smuggling attempt in West Texas, border sheriffs were rewarded with additional funds to provide border security. Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday announced that $3.8 million from state criminal justice funds will go to the 16 members of Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition, a group that has been trying to coordinate efforts to beef up the border. This is the second round of funds the governor gives to the sheriffs and comes less than a month after one sheriff told Perry he was worried the money was about to...

County and federal border lawmen took another step toward working together to address their common law enforcement problems when they met in Del Rio Thursday. “I feel that it was a resounding success. I was very proud of the chief patrol agents responsible for the Texas border sectors for their role in agreeing to meet so we can begin these dialogues,” Val Verde County Sheriff A. D’Wayne Jernigan said of Thursday’s meeting. Included in Thursday’s meeting were 14 of the 16 sheriffs who are members of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition and representatives of all of the U.S. Border Patrol...

DEL RIO — Three months after Gov. Rick Perry breathed life — in the form of nearly $6 million in state criminal justice grants — into a border security operation conceived by 16 sheriffs, the officials are putting the money to use. The grant terms are simple: The Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition gets the $6 million to fund Operation Linebacker to help back up federal border law enforcement efforts. The only restrictions are that no weapons or ammunition can be bought with Linebacker funds. "This is the front door to the United States; it is no longer the back door,"...

Val Verde County Commissioners and County Judge Mike L. Fernandez are backing the county sheriff’s participation in the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition’s “Operation Linebacker.” County commissioners court during their October regular term meeting on Monday, Oct. 10, unanimously passed a resolution supporting “Operation Linebacker,” a move by Texas’ border sheriffs to seek funding for a border security plan. The commissioners court’s resolution notes that Val Verde County consists of 3,233 square miles, and that the county shares 109.5 miles of border with Mexico. “The commissioners court of Val Verde County, Texas has been briefed by its chief law enforcement officer,...

The plan to have sheriff's deputies help Border Patrol agents tighten border security has already been tested in El Paso County and it worked, El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said Thursday. Samaniego said his department conducted an eight-week operation around Fabens and Tornillo about a year ago, paying sheriff's deputies overtime to flood the area. The result: a 40 percent drop in crime compared with the same period the year before. "The word gets back across to Mexico that there are a lot more officers on patrol, and they cease to cross," Chief Deputy Jimmy Apodaca said.

LAREDO — Border-area sheriffs got a boost from Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday to the tune of $9.7 million in state money deployed as part of a border security plan. The funding will be made available to the 16-member Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition immediately, and the group will have wide discretion over how to spend it, Perry said. The coalition was formed in May in response to border concerns about spillover violence from feuding Mexican drug cartels and the belief among some local officials that the federal government is not doing enough to keep potential terrorists from infiltrating the southern border....