Kinney County Arresting Most

Texas Tribune Cites Local Politics

“We’re Number One, We’re Number One!” That’s the response from one local man to the news that tiny little Kinney County is responsible for the most arrests of illegal aliens in the state. He’s joking. And it may be in bad taste, but it also lends some credence to the Texas Tribune’s assertion how local politics are shaping the border crisis here.

As we pointed out in one of our initial dispatches, the Texas Border area is not at all some monoculture, even if it is treated so. What the Tribune calls “local politics,” one could also characterize as a cultural difference. When Gulf War II was kicking off, there were a series of articles in national press about the “Scots Irish Culture,” and how it was influencing the discussion on going to war with Saddam Hussein. Five seconds with google shows “Scots Irish Culture” also returned for discussion in 2009, in The Atlantic, for a talk about populist fury with Barack Obama. Well, even though Kinney County is heavily populated with Hispanic voters, the prevailing culture here is largely influenced by Scots Irish attitudes that put a high value on the law, applying it equally to all, and also put a high premium on self-sovereignty and personal property. To sum it up: “Don’t tell me what to do on my own land, and you can stay the hell off it” could be a quote uttered by almost any local property owner, whether a million dollar exotic game ranch or a modest trailer home and parcel tucked away on Fort Clark Springs.

This is not an attitude unique to Kinney County, of course, but the County’s lack of reliance on international trade or close relationships with Mexican counterparts, could arguably leave it without any need to leaven that attitude with any sort of cross-border lubrication.

According to the Tribune, more than 400 of the 600+ Illegal Aliens housed at the Dolph Briscoe Unit in Dilley, Texas have been arrested by DPS or local Sheriff’s Deputies in Kinney County, a number that dwarfs nearby Val Verde County and Maverick County, both home to the border towns of Del Rio, and Eagle Pass. It should be noted that both of those counties have larger jails, able to house greater numbers of arrestee’s locally. Kinney County with its overwhelmed 14 bed jail is sending captured illegal aliens to Dilley daily.

What is somewhat going underreported in the middle of all this, is that the crisis isn’t really about illegal aliens from Mexico. Just witness coverage of how Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala is collapsing, under the weight of Haitian and other immigrants. The Mexican government actually seems to be doing a lot, to try and stem that tide, sending 14,000 troops to its southern border.

The Tribune quotes activists who mount a facile attempt at characterizing Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe and other local politicians as mean and cruel abusers of authority, targeting poor brown people, as if the vast majority of constituents here are not also poor and brown. As if local leaders in Webb, Zapata, Maverick, and Val Verde Counties are not also clamoring for a border wall and other tools to try and stay ahead of this crisis. Those counties, by the way, are also made up of a poor and brown population, and in some cases those counties have historically tended to vote for Democrats.

One area where the Tribune could be saluted, is in their highlighting the judicial crunch that is looming over this crisis as authorities around the state pile up trespassing charges to punish and apprehend illegal aliens and border traffickers. Every case that gets filed requires magistration. A day in court. Lawyers. Prosecutors and defenders. So far, there hasn’t been any major public discussion of this, and just how much it’s going to cost. It seems entirely possible that many cases may wind up being dropped, for want of a timely hearing and the resources to try them properly. When one considers the cost to the taxpayer, the cost to the state’s justice system, in not only money but also cynicism, the bill for a border wall may seem small by comparison.