A Lingering Courtroom Crisis as the Border Heals
Hello Friends,
We’re a couple of days late on this one but judging by how little reaction we’ve detected so far, it perhaps bears additional stressing.
We want to call your attention to a recent announcement by the Texas Border Prosecution Unit— attempting to alert Texas leadership to a brewing crisis in Border courtrooms.
There’s a lot to it— but for brevity’s sake we’ll summarize it this way— bear in mind, this is our personal interpretation, and it may not quite gel the way the BPU and others are trying to present it. Indeed— they may even say we’re partially wrong. But basically, the argument seems to be that in the rush to wind things down, the State is prematurely shuttering the jail facilities that many smaller counties have been relying upon to house the thousands of prisoners that have been arrested and charged as part of Operation Lone Star.
It’s hard not to blame the state, which has been hemorrhaging money— to our knowledge, the facility in Dilley, Texas— one of a small handful— has been mostly empty lately. But what’s happening is that suspects who’ve bonded out of custody have been getting rearrested after new violations elsewhere and are being referred back to the border counties which are now unable to house them all locally.
This leads to tremendous unanticipated costs centered around prisoner transport to and from scattered locations around the region as Sheriffs try to find housing for them all— placing them in neighboring jails. But—since we’re talking about West Texas, “neighboring jails” can mean hundreds and hundreds of miles of travel.
To us here at the Dispatch, the key phrase is this one: “Without help from the Office of the Governor and legislative leadership, the criminal justice system will continue to be overwhelmed, and bad actors will not face justice.”
What BPU Chair, and Border County District Attorney Tonya Ahlschwede seems to be suggesting is that people who should be locked up will possibly wind up skating. We can imagine the possibility that cases might get tossed out of court, or pushed to a limp-wristed plea deal, for want of a speedy resolution, without continued funding for prosecutions and court-related costs.
On X/Twitter, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith has been advising questioners that want to help, that the best thing they can do is call their State Representatives and Senators, urging them to continue financially supporting border prosecutions.
He also named Rep. Cole Hefner, who is the chair of the homeland security committee, and Senator Brian Birdwell, who is the chair of the Border Security committee.
What else is there to say? Things along this particular stretch of the river appear to be quiet. Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, at a recent meeting of County Commissioners, related an anecdote about a high-speed chase in a neighboring county. He says the suspected smuggler crossed over into Kinney County and made a quick u-turn— back into a neighboring county.
Story goes, once he was arrested, lawmen quizzed him about the u-turn. The suspect said he wanted to avoid getting charges in Kinney County— that he’d heard the penalties here are severe.
The Sheriff was a little shy on details about the incident, making it hard to confirm, and we’re not relating the actual County the chase occurred in, because no one wants to suggest their neighbors are being light-handed by comparison. And yet, proof may be in the pudding. Kinney County’s been relatively quiet for months now, as chases and other activities continue in Val Verde and Maverick Counties, though they both report much reduced numbers as well.
It could also be the case that with military forces on the ground in both Counties, law enforcement is having a much easier time stopping would-be smugglers in their tracks.
For now, the status quo appears to be much as we’ve speculated in our last (months old) edition: The big story still on the horizon right now, may wind up being in various major American cities, well away from the border, which are already facing a myriad of unexpected financial hardships as they attempt to accommodate so many illegal aliens.
In any event— that should do it for now, though we do want to recognize a large number of new subscribers— here via the recommendations of our associates at Current Revolt.
It seems Current Revolt is blowing up lately— snaring many new readers by breaking new angles and aspects to the pending showdown between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, as well as other, smaller beefs and scandals in the Texas Legislature as lawmakers there go through the motions of the Special Session. If you aren’t subscribed to Current Revolt— we highly recommend doing so. You’re only missing out if not.
As always, we stress the fact that despite our day job at Kinney County, no one should mistake this humble newsletter for any kind of an official communication. It remains a separate product, produced independently and without any oversight. We mention this for obvious reasons and to remain in keeping with County policies on social media.
Have a great one— we’ll be back again— especially if rumors about a high-profile visitor coming to Val Verde County soon are true.