- April 24, 2024
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More than 100 men and women, some carrying infants, gathered on the southern bank of the Rio Grande River, under a sliver of moon in the July night sky, preparing to do something illegal: leave Mexico, cross the river and reach American soil.
About 10 people waited on the American side, including representatives of the Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the National Guard, but they weren’t there to make any arrests. They were leading a tour of what has been described as “ground zero” for the immigration crisis, in the cities of Roma and McAllen, Texas.
One man on the tour was far from home: Rick Staly, sheriff of Flagler County, Florida. He, along with Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood and other Florida sheriffs, were led to various hot spots to see what happens when people cross the river.
The answer, in a law enforcement sense, is nothing.
At midnight, the ferry service began. The Rio Grande was about 500 feet wide, with a gentle current, and only a few feet deep at this spot, so the two yellow rafts, each carrying about 10 people at a time, were led across by “coyotes,” or men who guaranteed their passengers’ safety for a price of $6,000 per person. The money ended up in the hands of drug cartels, Staly was told on the tour.
One of the coyotes shouted angrily at the border patrol agents, threatening to drop an infant in the water if there was any trouble. Two officers waded into the water to help a mother and children off a raft.
Many nights, officers hear gunfire from the town of Ciudad Miguel Aleman, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.
There was little chatter among the now-illegal families. Many quietly smiled, relieved at reaching the promised land.
But now what? Most arrived with few, if any possessions or identification. As Staly and Chitwood described in subsequent interviews, the immigrants were processed, fed and, in many cases, given plane tickets around the United States — including Florida.
“The border’s coming to every town in America,” Staly said in an interview with the Observer. “Every town is a border town.”
For the last six months — long before Gov. Ron DeSantis announced law enforcement officials from state and local agencies would be deploying to Texas and Arizona in response to the border crisis — Chitwood had been wanting to visit the border.
Via local, state and federal drug task forces Volusia deputies have intercepted at least a dozen kilos of fentanyl and heroin that originated in Mexico. Before sending any of his deputies, Chitwood wanted to see for himself what was going on at the border.
The opportunity came after Florida Congresswoman Kat Cammack invited sheriffs to join her on a trip to Texas. For those who worried about the cost of the trip, Chitwood posted on his Facebook page that it amounted to $850, funded entirely by his department's "drug forfeiture fund."
In the 28 hours Chitwood spent on the border, he said he and the other visiting sheriffs received nonstop information.
“It was like drinking from a fire house," Chitwood said. "I mean, I have pages, and pages, and pages of notes.”
But most of all, what struck him was how overwhelmed border patrol is.
On his first night with the border patrol, Chitwood said three groups between 80 and 200 people approached via raft seeking political asylum, all arriving at the same time. As this went on and border patrol agents responded, other groups of what Staly, in an editorial sent to the Palm Coast Observer, referred to as "got-aways" take off running into the night in the gaps created by the agents helping people out of the rafts.
These are the ones to worry about, both sheriffs said.
The "got-aways" are often gang members, drug mules or other fugitive criminals, many of whom have already arranged for transportation out of McAllen, Texas. They don't all come from Mexico; these individuals are from all over the world: Haiti, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and even as far away as Uzbekistan, said Chitwood.
“That was a huge problem," Chitwood said. "There just isn’t the resources. Even with the technology, there’s several hundred thousand that are getting in.”
Staly wrote that 204 individuals evaded border patrol agents in this way on June 13 alone.
But the immigrants in the rafts turn themselves in as soon as they touch U.S. soil. They have come for one reason: to seek a better life for their families.
"Who could blame them?" Staly wrote in his editorial. "We are the greatest nation on earth with the most opportunity (obviously I wish they would enter legally, but our broken immigration system has caused this crisis)."
Both sheriffs reported that when the immigrants set foot in U.S. territory, they are given a notice to appear in court within three to five years. At the airport, Staly witnessed them receive envelopes that would help them board planes to Orlando, Miami and Tampa.
"There were hundreds of brown envelopes at the airport," Staly wrote. "Vans were dropping them off in front of the airport, and then they went to a special access line, where no photo identification was needed, and boarded planes, including ours."
Seeing the children at the border is heartbreaking, Chitwood said. They're a product of the tragedy formed by the border crisis.
“The criminality and all these other things are being woven around them," he said. "It’s almost like they’re being human shields so that the cartels and the human traffickers can get their way.”
Drug overdoses due to fentanyl and heroin remain a huge issue in both Volusia and Flagler counties. In Volusia, 1,000 people have died as a result.
That's why what's happening at the border is not a political issue, but a problem for all Americans, Chitwood said.
"I don’t care where you live, fentanyl is killing people no matter what your political persuasion is," he said.
Human trafficking is also a major concern of the current border crisis. Agents regularly find young girls seeking asylum while in the company of strange men, Chitwood said.
The U.S. Border Patrol reports that checkpoints nationwide since October 2020 have resulted in drug seizures totaling 413 pounds of fentanyl, 291 pounds of heroin, and 5,019 pounds of methamphetamine. The agency believes it only intercepts 20% of the drugs that are being brought in, Staly was told.
If local deputies are dispatched to help with the border crisis, they will likely help fill the gaps in surveillance left by border patrol agents helping asylum seekers out of the river so as to minimize the chances for "got-aways" to make their way into the U.S.
Once in police custody, these individuals will be returned to Mexico.
“It’s a little bit of catch and release," Chitwood said.
There isn't a perfect way to handle illegal immigration, Chitwood said, but what the federal government is doing now is not the answer.
What kind of system do we need?
Chitwood said one that "is firm, but fair and has compassion to it."
— Brian McMillan contributed to this report.
