Citizens Speak at Courthouse Against County’s Immigration Enforcement

Four citizens spoke out at the Commissioners Court meeting last Thursday against Fayette County’s participation in immigration enforcement.

Several more joined the opposition later in the meeting when the Court took up an item to extend a disaster declaration related to human smuggling and illegal immigration.

One of the agenda items for the Oct. 22 meeting was a vote to renew a disaster declaration the Court initially approved back in August. The declaration states that Fayette County residents “are under an imminent threat of disaster from the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling coming across the U.S. border from Mexico.” The declaration goes on to describe the threat as an “invasion of Fayette County.”

Fayette County Emergency Management Coordinator Angela Hahn said the declaration is part of Fayette County’s participation in Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. By joining Operation Lone Star, Hahn said, the County could become eligible for state grant funding and other assistance.

This program is separate from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program, which has also attracted a lot of attention lately.

“We’ve been told many times … that people are referred from law enforcement to immigration enforcement when they are a danger to the community,” said Rebecca Hegar, one of the citizens who spoke at Thursday’s meeting. “When they have a serious criminal record, when they have outstanding warrants, when they react hostilely or violently or in a violent way. But that does not appear to be what is happening.”

Another citizen, Mary Wolf, read a letter from an anonymous undocumented woman from Fayette County. The letter described a traffic stop in Fayette County that resulted in the her husband’s detention by ICE.

“I was the one who was stopped by a sheriff because I was not aware that my front plate was missing,” Wolf read from the letter. “I admit that was my wrong and of course accepted any citation or ticket that came along. What I don’t agree on is the fact that I was stopped, not my husband. He just pulled over because I had our kids in the car with me and he wanted to make sure we were okay. He never stepped out of the car until the deputy asked him to come out and asked for his ID.

“He apparently searched us up in the system and told us that we had deportation orders, which was a not true,” Wolf continued. “Again, as I had mentioned, we are here legally and have never missed a single court. He scared my husband, saying that he had to take one of us. He made him choose between me and him, and obviously my husband turned himself in. He has been detained unlawfully in a processing center since.”

The woman went on to write that she and her children are suffering from the lack of her husband’s income. They’re afraid to leave their house, she said. The wife has since taken their children out of school.

During the meeting, County Judge Dan Mueller invited Deputy Cody Williams from the Sheriff’s Office to speak about Operation Lone Star (OLS). Williams said OLS primarily targets criminal trafficking, whether it be narcotics trafficking or human trafficking.

“The focus is much on interdiction,” Williams said. “I know, me personally, I have seized 10 kilos of cocaine and nine kilos of methamphetamines. I also seized $64,000 in a hidden compartment. That vehicle was originally destined for Houston, and I caught it going back to Brownsville. From what the guy said, it ran 30 kilos of cocaine up to Houston. So that’s what Lone Star Task Force does. It combats against the business.”

Later Williams added, “I know that there’s good people getting caught up with the bad in this, but at the end of the day, we’re enforcing the laws of this state and of the United States, and that’s what we’re doing.”

One of the citizens in the audience asked how many people have been detained for immigration violations by the Sheriff’s Office. Williams said the Sheriff’s Office has signed confidentiality agreements with ICE that prevent them from disclosing those numbers.

“You tell us how many ounces, whatever it is, pounds of cocaine you can get,” said another citizen at the meeting, Verlia Mosley-Rhodes. “Why is it that we can’t know how many people, how many criminals have been picked up and put into our jails or sent to wherever?”

Assistant County Attorney Blake Watson said anyone can request this information through the Public Information Act. After the meeting, the Record filed a request for the number of people who have been detained for immigration violations in Fayette County.

At one point in the meeting, Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff defended the County’s participation in immigration enforcement.

“Today I’m going to speak for my family … not as a county commissioner,” Berckenhoff said. “I have two daughters, a wife, mother, sisters, nieces. There’s an act called the Laken Riley Act. She was killed by an illegal immigrant that should not have been in this country.

“There’s a large population in Flatonia, the Hispanic population, that are here legally or illegally, I don’t know,” Berckenhoff went on to say (his precinct covers the Flatonia area). “Most of them are hard-working parents. But I am not going to apologize for asking that this county—there’s always mistakes made. A person maybe shouldn’t have been stopped and they did. Hopefully they will get it clarified and they can go back to their family.

“But I don’t want the Laken Riley Act to be named after my daughter who got killed by an illegal immigrant just because she was jogging,” he continued. “Those are the kind of things that these guys keep us safe from. And as a taxpayer, I’m gonna support these guys the best they can. Do they make mistakes? Absolutely. I make mistakes in my job. But if there’s an illegal living here that’s a rapist, hopefully because of (the Sheriff’s Office), they’re leaving this county. And my family, your family won’t be jeopardized by that.

“If somebody’s uncomfortable, if they’re here illegally and they had plenty of time to get their papers, or it’s taking longer than they want, if they’re not paying their fines, their fees, whatever it is, that’s on them, not me,” Berckenhoff said. “So I’m sorry if some people are uncomfortable, but I want my family, I want all y’all to be safe. And if it’s for them to run the rapists and murderers out of this county, I’m all for it.”

When the disaster declaration came up for a vote, it passed 4-0. Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom was absent from the meeting.