Wanting to see first-hand the consequences of President Biden’s failed border policy, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and Health Subcommittee held their first field hearing in McAllen, Texas, to examine the out-of-control border crisis. The hearing focused on issues ranging from the mass of illegals crossing the border to stopping deadly fentanyl smuggling, confirmed by local witnesses on the front lines of Biden’s border crisis.
The Center Square reported, “Chair of the [Oversight and Investigations] subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia, said it was important the committee convene in Texas ‘to shed light on the brutal and unsustainable conditions this president’s administration has caused at our border. No other country in the world operates its borders in the manner this administration has chosen.’”
One of those who testified at the hearing was Brooks County, Texas, Sheriff Benny Martinez, who told the committee members how the border crisis was affecting his county. He spoke on the record number of dead bodies his deputies have found, the costs to his county, and the record amount of human and drug smuggling occurring since Biden has assumed office.
Sheriff Martinez, a Democrat, said his county was facing “a national security issue, a public health issue and a humanitarian issue” brought about by foreign nationals from over 150 countries illegally entering the U.S., including those seeking to evade law enforcement. He said that those traveling north by car on Highway 281 from McAllen must stop at “a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, ‘one of the busiest checkpoints in regard to undocumented crossers’ apprehensions and narcotics seizures.’” Brooks is a rural county, with just over 7,000 residents and located 70 miles north of McAllen.
Martinez, who has 44 years of experience in local law enforcement, acknowledged that his county is part of a major human and drug smuggling route. He testified that illegals wanting to avoid border patrol agents and the border checkpoint stations pay coyotes (human smugglers) and trespass on private property to avoid capture. Those who manage to get through will then be picked up at a prearranged location to get transported north, “usually to Houston.”
“In some cases, ‘local gang members and others seeking financial gain who live in the county drive the human smuggling through ranchland by cutting locks and fences causing untold private property damage. The sad reality is many do not survive the journey,’” shared Center Square.
The site continued:
In August 2021, Martinez testified before a Texas House Appropriations Committee on border security funding, stating Brooks County had seen “a 140% increase in dead bodies, a 130% increase in 911 calls, over 200% increase in rescues.”
Since then, those numbers [have] increased astronomically. In 2022, his deputies, responsible for covering 943 square miles, found 917 dead bodies compared to 119 in 2021 and 34 in 2020, the sheriff’s office told The Center Square. So far this year, they’ve found 12.
The cost to the county to recover and help identify the bodies has totaled nearly $1 million, he said.
Assisting Texas communities with the effects of the border crisis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott instituted Operation Lone Star in 2021, which has sent thousands of Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety officers to the border and across the state to help protect Texans.
Speaking at the State of the State address on Thursday, Abbott continued his efforts to protect Texans, instructing lawmakers to push for more state-led border legislation to do what the federal government should be doing, protect the border. “Guns, drugs, cartel gangs. All kinds of illegal activity are assailing our border, all while Washington has abandoned its duty. Texans are furious about the lawlessness caused by Biden’s open border policies, and they should be,” Abbott said.
During the hearing in McAllen, the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, (R-Wash.), said the president’s “open borders agenda was putting Americans all across this country at risk and turning every town into a border town.”
Rodgers’ comment was validated with Sheriff Martinez’ testimony that “the Falfurrias checkpoint reported a 100% increase in firearms seizures in 2022 from 2021, a 400% increase in checkpoint vehicle circumventions, 150% increase in cocaine seizures, a 1,743% increase in meth seizures, 175% increase in apprehensions of gang members, 67% increase in apprehensions of sexual offenders, and a 220% increase in alien smuggling cases.”
The sheriff is echoing others along the border who know that the simple solution to the border crisis is to just enforce the current laws. He said that Drug Enforcement Agency, Customs and Border Protection, and other agents are in place and should be allowed to do their jobs. “Just let them work. They know what they’re doing.”