Early Wins in Federal Court, vs. White House Immigration Rules

And, The Smeared Saga of Austin's "Dillo Dirt," and Why it Deserves a Review

Hello again Friends,

Folks keeping track of the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page have some notion of how busy things have been— with several different wacky little discoveries. Illegal aliens crammed into cars, illegal aliens crammed into U-hauls, illegal aliens crammed into the county at large. A back-of-the-envelope estimate at the Sheriff’s Office suggests they’re averaging 2-high-speed-pursuits a day out in the county. So far, Deputies and DPS troopers have done a good job of keeping almost all of the commotion outside city limits.

In so many words— the crisis continues, but the beat and the notes of the symphony are all quite familiar to us by now.

Rather than focus on that, let’s turn our attention to Galveston County, and the Federal Courthouse there, where a federal lawsuit filed months ago by Kinney County and other Texas Counties and a Union of Federal Agents and Employees, has been slowly grinding through the process of trying to force the reinstatement of old border control policies that were jettisoned by the Biden White House. Movement in the case has been expected for weeks, if not months, with no signs of life.

Well, Thursday morning, (March 24) came word finally that the courts have rejected attempts by the Federal Government to relocate the case— and take it away from the federal courthouse in Galveston County and perhaps move it to a more theoretically sympathetic location like San Antonio, or Laredo.

An article summarizing things is available at a website called law360.com, and wouldn’t you know there’s a paywall. Luckily, there’s not much more to it, other than background which we can cover quickly.

Basically, the lawsuit alleges that Biden Administration policies have been requiring federal agents to violate certain specific terms of federal immigration law, contributing to the current crisis. The lawsuit also alleges that the changes force Border Patrol to release potentially dangerous criminal aliens into the interior of the United States. The plaintiffs, which include various Border County Sheriffs, a Union of Federal Employees, and others, say they just want U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be able to go back to enforcing the law the way that it’s written. The lawsuit includes sworn affidavits from federal agents, about various dangerous aliens that they say they were forced to allow into the U.S.

The case still hasn’t seen its day in court— but at least now, it’ll happen in front of a judge that is hopefully more likely to view it favorably. That’s a gross sentence to be typing— the idea that the law isn’t as impartial as we’d all like it to be— but we’re all adults here, and you have to play the game the way that it is, and not the way you wish it was, if you’re going to find any success.

Meanwhile, another setback in Federal Court for the Federal Government— this time at the hands of the Attorney General of Montana of all places— illustrating perhaps how the Southern Border Crisis is causing stress and strain in all kinds of unexpected locations.

The AG of Montana is a man named Austin Knudsen. He filed suit not so long ago, making similar arguments as those filed by Kinney County and others that we were just speaking of.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Image Courtesy: Montana Dept. of Justice

His suit was filed in an Ohio federal court— and a ruling there this week is resulting in a preliminary injunction, requiring the Department of Homeland Security to resume deporting dangerous convicted criminals and those whom federal immigration courts have already ordered the removal of.

Read that again: What’s being said there, is that people have had to go to court, to force the government to deport people that the government has already determined need to be deported, but because of the White House, haven’t been.

This is madness. It’s like the Mad Hatter’s tea party around here:

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

Here’s the PDF to the court paperwork for the Montana lawsuit and preliminary injunction.

Here’s the release the Montana AG’s Office put out, back in November when they first filed suit, offering some more background to the case if you’re that hardcore.

This would all seem to be good news for Kinney County’s lawsuit in Galveston. But— it seems like these things all take time. Time to file. Time to consider. Time to enact. Time that is in short supply around here, for ranchers and private citizens that are already at their wit’s end, down to that last scrap of screaming nerve.

Realize, even the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition is forecasting a crazily busy Summer season for illegal alien traffic, in part because of the expected expiration of Title 42 regulations and the effect they’ve had on illegal immigration.

One of the things Border Patrolmen and others in the trenches on the Southern Border are bracing for is an expected surge in traffic from Eastern Europe and Ukraine as the crisis there continues. Often spoken of in the same breath, are worries about a shortage of fertilizer, because of disruption in the global supply chain and spiking fuel prices, and how it may lead to famine in some regions.

It’s led some local wags to remark on how it might be a great time to be a chicken rancher or pig farmer. If there’s one things pigs and chickens do, it’s eat and evacuate— to put it politely. All-natural fertilizer, friends.

With that in mind— it’s probably worth revisiting a thing folks in Austin may recall, a piece of recent history: The Dillo Dirt Experience, at the Austin City Limits Music Festival back in 2009.

It wasn’t a thing that happened on purpose, you understand. Like many great, all-time classic events, there was a perfect blend of ignorance, fate, and feces involved.

Yes, feces.

Have you heard of “Dillo Dirt” before? On the face of it, it would seem like a pretty cool thing. It’s an all-natural fertilizer made up of composted branches and leaves and what the City of Austin politely refers to as “biosolids.”

The Dillo Dirt Logo, Courtesy: The City of Austin, and Synagro

That’s a quaint little codeword for sewage. Feces again. Feces.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival of 2009 was held that year in Zilker Park. The City of Austin made the decision to put its Dillo Dirt experiment to the test— spreading it around all over the open fields, wanting to encourage and guarantee a fine, healthy crop of lush green grass.

Well. It rained. And folks flocked to the concert, looking for a good time.

Thousands of feet, walking, dancing, swaying back and forth quickly turned it all into a “mud” pit. Only, you know— replace the mud with “composted biosolids.”

Many of the concert goers at the time seemed to take it in stride, ignorant as to just what the “mud” was made of— comparisons were made to the summer of love and the muddy fields of Woodstock!

Just some of “The Dillo Kids” as they were later called. Zilker Park, Austin, TX 2009 Image from Sourcewatch.org

Later, folks complained about rashes and skin irritation, and it all started to come out. Dillo Dirt. Composted biosolids. The fact people were basically rolling around in what amounted to treated sewage.

More Dillo Dirt Dancers, Zilker Park, Austin, TX 2009, Image from Sourcewatch.org

Delicious. The irony of the situation, that is. From a cosmic standpoint of perfect hindsight. Even now, here we are sort of laughing about it— when the last laugh may actually belong to Dillo Dirt, after all. It, and similar products are liable to benefit greatly in the event of a fertilizer shortage.

If you want to read the definitive recollection of the “Dillo Dirt” whitewash, errm, coverup, check out a reporter named Brandon Roberts, who wrote it up for something called “The Cut,” way back when. The article still exists, archived on his personal website.

Highly recommend reading it. If anything, our memory has undersold the health complications some suffered— focusing on the awkward humor and feces jokes. One woman almost lost her leg because of infection.

Honestly? After reading it, and Roberts’ breakdown about industrial pollutants that are surely also present, perhaps “Dillo Dirt” isn’t the panacea it is still being marketed as today.

Better find an honest pig farmer instead, friends.

And that should do it until the next time. As always, we stress that the Cavalry - Dispatch is an independent work product and any errors or opinions expressed within are entirely our own and not a reflection of any policies or statements from the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office which employs us.

Have a great weekend, stay strong— stay out of the mud— and keep them toes tappin’. We’ll see you again real soon.