Allowing Title 42 to expire, which could clear the way for undocumented migrants to enter the United States, would be a disaster for Kimble County, according to a county commissioner and the sheriff.
Commissioner Kenneth Hoffman said the order, put in place in March 2020 by the Trump administration as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, needs to remain in place. President Joe Biden ordered Title 42 lifted May 23, but a federal judge reversed that decision.
Hoffman, a Republican, is in the fourth year of his first term as county commissioner and is running for re-election this year.
“I ran for commissioner to try to help our county use our resources to maintain our roads and infrastructure to the best of our ability using the limited funds available in our county,” he told Lone Star Standard. “Our county is not a wealthy county. The illegal immigration problem is stretching our sheriff’s department very thin, making it more challenging to cover the normal responses along with all immigration issues. We have had to put more of our budget toward the sheriff’s department to help cover their equipment and personnel needs.”
Kimble County Sheriff Allen Castleberry said the influx of illegal immigration has altered life in the county, about 90 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It’s made people more aware of what’s going around going on around them. They’ve had to change their habits,” Castleberry told Lone Star Standard. “They’ve got to lock their gates. They've got to lock their houses. They’ve got to lock their cars. They’ve got to lock up their valuables, guns.
“A lot of my ranchers are starting to carry guns,” he said. “And I’ve had some comments from some of the ranchers, ‘It's a shame. My family’s lived here over 100 years and never had to carry a gun. And now we do.’”
Castleberry said the ranchers believe they need to be armed to protect themselves.
“With all the influx of the smuggling and all the stuff that's going on, they don’t want to be out in the pasture and get confronted and get their vehicles taken from them or assaulted," he said.
Castleberry, who has been in law enforcement for more than 25 years, served as chief deputy for five years before being elected sheriff in 2020. He has eight deputies to cover a large, sparsely populated (about 4,300 people) county. It covers more than 1,200 square miles, and dealing with people in the country illegally has become a major part of his work, with one hectic day following the next.
“We had 157 encounters with undocumented immigrants last month,” Castleberry said. “And as of May 31, we have 234 encounters. Last year we only hit 200.”
He said his deputies are arresting drivers who are smuggling people into the United States and “putting them in jail and holding them accountable for their crimes.”
Drugs are being moved through the county as well.
“One of my deputies last month made a traffic stop and got a little over a pound and a half of methamphetamine,” Castleberry said.
He said state and federal agencies have been very supportive.
“The governor [Greg Abbott] has been really, really good to us," Castleberry said. “He helps us with Operation Lone Star, with grants. He’s helping with the state troopers, getting them put in place in staging areas where they need to be.”
The U.S. Border Patrol is doing all it can, he said, but is overwhelmed with the number of people seeking to come across the border.
“They’re doing a great job with what they’ve got to work with and the influx of what they’re dealing with,” Castleberry said.
He said the Drug Enforcement Agency has also been responsive.
“The law enforcement agencies are really good. They’re really helpful,” the sheriff said. “I can pick up the phone, call them, say, ‘I've got this problem. Can you come help?’ They'll be here.”
But those practices could be threatened soon if Title 42 enforcement ends, the sheriff notes. In April, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said the order would be allowed to expire in May.
“After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19 [such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics], the CDC director has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary,” the agency said in an April 1 statement.
The statement caused considerable uproar, especially in border states. On May 23, U.S. Judge Robert Summerhays, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, temporarily blocked the Biden administration and the CDC from repealing the order.
Biden mulled his options after the judge’s ruling, with some reports that he was relieved by the order. On Wednesday, NBC News reported that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to move migrants awaiting immigration proceedings into large cities away from the border, starting with Los Angeles.
They also will be sent to Houston, Dallas, Albuquerque and other cities. Local shelters are already working with federal authorities, NBC News reported, citing internal documents it has seen.
Title 42 applied to persons traveling from Canada or Mexico and entering through facilities supervised by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Department of Interior. It does not apply to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, members of the military or U.S. government and their families, individuals who arrive with acceptable valid documents and people in a visa waiver program.
Title 42 prevents most people from seeking asylum. Only migrants who can prove “affirmative, spontaneous, and a reasonably believable claim that they fear being tortured in the country they are being sent back to,” are referred to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to qualify under the Convention Against Torture. Asylum seekers are turned back to Mexico or country of origin.
Hoffman said the influx of migrants has stressed county resources.
“We are seeing a lot more pursuits in the county,” he said. “This is making our roadways more dangerous for everyday travel for the whole community.”
Work once performed by federal authorities has shifted to local agencies, Hoffman said. That only adds to pressure on them, along with making local residents worry about their safety.
“It is my understanding that the Border Patrol has their hands tied on what they can do," he said. "They are spending the majority of their time processing immigrants and doing paperwork, instead of patrolling the border and being able to apprehend violators.
“I have personally seen deputies in pursuit going through town as evidence of human trafficking, but I have heard of gates and water gaps in fences being left open as part of trafficking,” he said. “I have seen multiple reports of traffickers being arrested, and this seems to be multiple times each week.”
Hoffman said he hopes the emergency order remains in place.
“If Title 42 is lifted I would expect the numbers of illegal crossings to go up dramatically,” he said. “They are already shipping illegal immigrants all over the country, and this will add to this crisis exponentially.”
Castleberry said if Title 42 enforcement ends, Kimble County would be severely impacted.
“It would be chaos," he said. "The cartels are very, very smart. They’re very, very aware of what we do. They have a very large criminal enterprise. They’re into the smuggling of drugs, cash, guns coming from the United States, going to Mexico for firearms, stolen vehicles. They’re into the stolen vehicles. They’re into the paper tag, the fake paper tags and the human smuggling and the trafficking. It’s a very big organization."
