Border Patrol Chief Confesses Under Oath
& Fentanyl Deaths in Del Rio
Good Morning Friends,
It’s been a while— but there’s some new developments out there in Val Verde County, Kinney County, and in the Border Crisis at large that deserve attention, and also have a certain element of novelty that’s been missing as we’ve gotten into a rut in our daily grind.
Take it from us— the only thing more tiresome than reading stories about “another load of illegal aliens caught,” is writing stories about “another load of illegal aliens caught.” So we try not to do that.
Rest assured— at least in this area of the border, deputies and state troopers continue to intercept and arrest all they can, even if we’re not writing about it constantly. You may also rest assured that if a day or two suddenly passes without a local pursuit, or a bust, we’ll be reporting that.
Lets start with the big story— it’s not exactly news that the Border is in crisis— but it is big news that the recently installed Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz confirmed it, while testifying under oath, something he and other administration officials seem to have done their best to avoid doing.
Florida’s Attorney General’s Office apparently dragged the statement out of him. Insiders at the Department of Homeland Security tell us that the scuttlebutt there in the days after this suggests that Ortiz is “going to be history.” The admission is one that seems to be at odds with what the party line has been from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and other administration figures.
When asked, “would you agree that the southern border is currently in crisis,” Ortiz replied, “Yes.” When asked, “Would you agree that unprecedented number of aliens are entering the United States right now,” he replied, “Yes.”
When asked, “Are the individuals that are turning themselves in doing so because they believe they are going to be paroled?” He replied, “I would imagine they think they are going to be released, yes.”
“Would you agree the aliens who cite favorable immigration policy as a reason to come to the United States are perceiving what is actually happening in the United States,” he replied, “Yes.”
“When President Biden was elected did the number of aliens trying to illegally enter the United States increase or decrease?” He replied, “Increase.”
“What is currently going on at the border, is it making it less safe for Americans and aliens at the border alike?” He waited a while to respond and answered, “Yes.”
“From your 31 years of experience, has the Border Patrol in a year ever had the number of encounters it’s going to have in 2022?” He replied, “No.”
When asked why it is important to detain and remove individuals who are in-admittable, he replied, “You want to make sure you have consequences.”
“And if you don’t have consequences, what is likely going to happen?” he was asked. He replied, “In my experience we have seen increases [of illegal entry] when there are no consequences.”
When asked if “migrant populations believe there aren’t going to be consequences, more of them will come to the border, is that what you are saying?” He replied, “There’s an assumption that if migrant populations are told that there’s a potential that they may be released that yes, you can see increases.”
Throughout the questioning, Ortiz moved around a lot in his chair, rubbed his forehead and appeared to be uncomfortable, according to an edited video recording of his deposition.
His attorney objected to every single question he was asked before he ever replied.
—Reporter Bethany Blankley, The Center Square, quoting Chief Raul Ortiz’s Testimony
We’re going to link the whole article again, here. One person familiar with the testimony described Chief Ortiz as “squirming” while trying to find a Clintonian path between the questions and what one imagines are the expectations of his superiors.
The deposition is part of a lawsuit from the State of Florida, which is echoing one that Kinney County is participating in. It claims that DHS and other agencies are failing to enforce federal law.
For example, one law not being enforced is the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to the lawsuit. It requires federal agents to detain inadmissible foreign nationals who’ve entered the U.S. illegally and repatriate them to the country of their citizenship. Instead, those who would normally be deported are being released into the U.S., according to Customs and Border Patrol data.
—Reporter Bethany Blankley, The Center Square
The case Kinney County is party to makes very similar claims about Administrative policies that are forcing Agents to knowingly admit dangerous criminals into the United States. That lawsuit has been pending for roughly a year now, at the Federal Courthouse in Galveston. No word on what the hold up has been.
Our subheadline above mentioned Fentanyl being found in Del Rio. Indeed, there’s been a flurry of drug-related stories coming out Val Verde County in recent days— a sign perhaps that they truly are cracking down in the wake of a nasty overdose.
Our associates at the 830 Times have been all over most of it, you can check their main news page and scroll through.
DEA, Val Verde County Sheriff’s Deputies, and a Haz-Mat crew from Laughlin Air Force Base were called to an apartment in the 400 block of Ela Street. It’s an area North of Highway 90, out toward the City’s airport.
Two women were killed— apparent overdoses— and one man was taken to the hospital, and at last report is still alive.
Fentanyl was found inside the apartment. It’s not clear if the victims knew they were consuming the stuff— or if they thought they were consuming a more modest drug like cocaine or prescription pills.
Cartels use fentanyl as a cheap alternative, using it to leaven and “bulk out” their supplies of other, more expensive drugs. They also press it into shapes that mimic prescription xanax and other commonly abused prescription drugs.
Fentanyl, however, is many times more dangerous than heroin and cocaine, frequently resulting in overdoses.
Unconfirmed reports have reached us here at the Cavalry-Dispatch that the male victim is named Peter Herrera, a local singer and songwriter. We are told he is on life-support in San Antonio, but this information has not been confirmed by authorities.
Authorities in Del Rio say they are chasing every possible lead in the case.
Taking a larger view— we turn to the Wall Street Journal, which has a fantastic break down of what fentanyl is— where it comes from— and how it gets made. Reporters were apparently able to get inside of a cartel lab operation for their coverage.
Readers may wonder— how’s that work? How did they convince the cartels to let them get inside?
Many forget, a lot of the ground-level workers inside the cartels are youngsters who sometimes like to brag. It’s partly why narco-corridas are a thing. And why foreign outside reporters are sometimes allowed on the inside.
One element of their reporting that jumped out at us, is how the Chinese Government has apparently made some strides in seeming not to be involved in the trade. One of the major canards about fentanyl is that it is shipped in wholesale from China. Given the Chinese Government’s involvement in just about every major import and export in China, it’s been something of a national security concern in some quarters. Reading the Journal’s reporting, one might be left with the impression that the Chinese Government actually has cracked down in a meaningful way.
Like so many things related to the southern border, the actual 100-percent confirmed truth is hard to testify to. However, it seems likely that one would probably make money if they were to bet heavily on some level of covert Chinese involvement.
Most recently, celebrity actor Michael K. Williams overdosed on the stuff in his New York City apartment. Williams was perhaps best known for playing the character “Omar” in HBO’s The Wire, as well as “Chalky White” in “Boardwalk Empire.”
Williams and his story are getting a large media push right now, as movie studios put out films and other work he completed before overdosing.
An unusual find to tell you about this morning— DPS troopers intercepted an all-female load of illegal aliens in Brackettville, the county seat for Kinney County.
It happened on the North side of town, late last week. A man driving a car with Maryland plates was taken into custody and will be facing State charges. The women were transferred to Border Patrol.
All-female loads are unusual. And usually indicative of sex trafficking.
Many times, women in Central America and Mexico are told there are good jobs waiting for them in the USA, as housekeepers, au pairs, or other similar work. It's not until they reach a destination that they're told what's really in store-- that they'll be prostituted by the cartels in order to pay off their debts.
In one widely publicized 2005 case in Houston, a nightclub owner named Maximino Mondragon, kept a stable of at least 120 immigrant women, who were told they'd be working as waitresses. They did. But they also had to turn tricks for customers at a series of Latino-themed sports bars operated by Mondragon.
We took a closer look at that incident, and some other things in the newsletter linked below:
If you want to go even deeper into the sex trade in Houston, check out this excellent article by Mimi Swartz, from 2010 in Texas Monthly. It is full of good information and stats, which one suspects have only worsened in the years since then.
It’s some serious food for thought, when encountering a particularly pernicious belief sometimes found online that sex work is somehow “empowering.”
And finally this morning, a friend of the newsletter sent us a link to a video that appears to show cartel gunmen cruising the highway on the US side of Arizona, with a .50 Caliber Barrett sniper rifle casually propped up on the dashboard. At one point, they cruise past Arizona State Troopers.
The video is posted by Arizona Border Recon. A militia group. It’s not immediately clear where they got it from. And there are plenty of folks in the comments poo-pooing it— saying it could easily be a fake of some kind, or just a couple of bros on their way to the gun range, while jamming out to a narco-corrida. Rifles like these are perfectly legal to own, but the whole thing seems rather brazen.
Some of our readers are libertarian gun-guys. Have you ever rocked out to a narco-corrida? Would you? You might enjoy the ballad of Heisenberg. That’s sort of narco-corrida-ish, isn’t it?
You can read some of the background about the song and its link to the show Breaking Bad here. But yeah— what are the odds that the guys with that Barrett .50 are just weirdos like yours truly, who might listen to that sort of thing while on the way to the range?
Pretty slim, one thinks. There just aren’t that many weirdos out there.
As always, this newsletter is produced separately from our involvement with the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office and should not be mistaken for any kind of an official communication. Indeed, any errors, opinions, or other misdeeds expressed here are ours alone.
Have a great morning— and we’ll be back again soon enough.
Well, the 50 doesn't belong to an American though it could. The cost to own one leaves most folks out of the market. Then there is the sound of border music in the vehicle to give them away. As for the song video - I have a hard time extracting a melody from Mexican music. Everything sounds like "La Cucaracha."