Texas sheriff takes matters into his own hands - drives illegal migrants back to the border

Townhall Media/Julio Rosas

What’s a fed-up sheriff to do? The Biden border crisis has pushed small border towns and counties to the edge. When Kinney County (TX) Sheriff Brad Coe pursued a vehicle allegedly involved in smuggling, he ended up taking the driver into custody. That left the vehicle’s five passengers for Sheriff Coe to deal with. He decided to handle the situation his own way.

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The driver is a Mexican national who was wearing a cartel-related medallion. He is now facing at least seven felony charges. The five passengers were all illegal migrants. One female was taken to the hospital in Del Rio. Her injuries were non-life-threatening. The other four passengers declined medical treatment. Coe was told by Border Patrol that they could only take the four if they were checked out medically first. So, Sheriff Coe was caught in the middle.

“Well they had declined any type of medical help,” Coe told The Epoch Times. “So I can’t let them walk the streets. I can’t say, ‘Hey, go, be free.’ Because I still have to protect the Constitution and protect the people in the county.”

Coe said he loaded the three males and one female into his truck and drove to Eagle Pass, about an hour away, and dropped them off at the port of entry between the United States and Mexico.

The Eagle Pass International Bridge is a port of entry. The sheriff was essentially deporting the illegal migrants, expecting them to walk back across the bridge to the other side of the border. As the sheriff said, it was either that or turn them loose in his community. Coe did say it wasn’t a regular routine of his, it was an unusual situation that he was dealing with. The Border Patrol couldn’t deal with them so he did.

Coe County is a small community. According to the 2020 census, its population is 3,129. That means there are very limited resources with which Sheriff Coe operates. Coe isn’t sure if there will be legal ramifications but I’m guessing the answer is yes. The ACLU is already on it. Immigration (and deportations) is a federal responsibility. We already know that Biden will turn on law enforcement without batting an eye. Remember how quickly he pronounced Border Patrol agents guilty during Whipgate?

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The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the sheriff of acting illegally by trying to deport the migrants himself, noting that state and local governments don’t have the lawful authority to do so.

ACLU lawyers on Wednesday demanded information from the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office on the recent ordeal and any prior similar incidents of attempted deportation of migrants.

Governor Abbott is speaking out in defense of the sheriff.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had hailed Coe’s move during a press conference Wednesday in the wake of the latest human smuggling tragedy that left 53 migrants dead in a sweltering truck in San Antonio.

“I applaud all of our sheriffs for having to respond in unprecedented conditions. And that’s causing all of us to use unprecedented action,” Abbott said.

“And so whether it’s doing what that sheriff in Kinney County is doing, or what we’re doing, such as turning back more than 20,000 people, we all have our own tools and strategies that we use to either turn back or to return people across the border.”

Deputies in Kinney County have already arrested 66 human smugglers this month alone.

Another vehicle crash at the hands of smugglers happened on Thursday. This time Border Patrol agents were in pursuit of the vehicle.

On Thursday, a Jeep carrying seven people was being pursued by Border Patrol agents when it crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer on the interstate, said Lt. Chris Olivarez with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The driver was hospitalized in critical condition along with two others who were also injured, Olivarez said. He said it was the second deadly smuggling attempt in 24 hours in South Texas after two migrants died in a car that was being pursued by authorities near the border city of La Joya.

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All of this happened after 53 people were found dead in a tractor-trailer outside of San Antonio earlier this week.

Good for Sheriff Coe and thinking outside the box. He takes his oath of office seriously, unlike Joe Biden. If Biden would do his job and secure the southern border, the humanitarian crisis he created would not be an issue. His dereliction of duty is intentional. Nothing will change as long as he is in office.

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