Law-Enforcement turning to Quemado
And, 130 MPH Chase Ends with 17-Year-Old in Cuffs
Good morning, friends,
It’s Wednesday morning— a little later than we anticipated returning, but it’s now or never, since the next big thing that’s about to happen around here is Thursday afternoon.
Some of our subscribers are surely already aware, but it looks like DPS and other Law Enforcement want to talk to some landowners in the Quemado area. Quemado is a village that sits roughly in between Del Rio, Eagle Pass, and Brackettville.
It also happens to be the general area where U.S. Soldiers entered Mexico against orders, under the command of “Colonel Bad-Hand” Mackenzie and set fire to a trio of Indian villages way back when, but we digress.
We’re not exactly in the know for whatever this is— so we plan to attend. Our best guess is that they want to talk a few of the ranchers and farmers in that area into allowing law-enforcement greater access to their property. It may also be that they need more paperwork signed, allowing speedy arrests and trespassing cases to be filed.
That’s one of the more overlooked aspects of things associated with Kinney County and OLS. Part of what makes it possible is the enthusiastic participation of local landowners in filling out all the paperwork underlying the trespassing prosecutions.
At one point way back when, it seemed there were going to be some complaints, because the County couldn’t get deputies out and about fast enough to the various landowners to get it done.
We’re reminded of an anecdote from the old west. The tribes realized at some point that surveyors and the bureaucracy they represented was what led to the spread of white civilization. Consequently, they were merciless in targeting surveyors. It became a very dangerous profession, and more than a few original Texas Rangers were surveyors, or bodyguards of surveyors. Long story short— paper gets more things done than we might realize.
Speaking of paper— let’s talk about the Lege. Things are starting to gel— with House Speaker Dade Phelan coming out the other day and saying he’s all in on HB 20. That’s the bill that might lead to some kind of a “Border Protection Unit,” that we mentioned the other day. It’s too soon to get too excited or too upset about it, in our opinion— it’s also too soon for us to apologize for calling him “Tampon Dade.” But we’d like to. We hope we have to at some point. Those would be great words to have to eat.
Also of note is SB 22 in the Texas Senate, which would establish a rural sheriff's department salary assistance grant program, allowing an additional $75,000 dollars a year for sheriffs and between $45,000 and $40,000 for deputies.
And there's also HB 800 which would increase the mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted of human smuggling to 10 years. It would also establish a minimum sentence of 5 years for those convicted of running a "stash house." The bill is sponsored by Rio Grande City Republican Ryan Guillen.
And there's also HB 1600, which would make it a 3rd-degree felony for someone not a US Citizen or legal permanent resident to enter the State from Mexico, via any route other than a legal port of entry. The bill is sponsored by Republican Cole Hefner from Mount Pleasant.
Other bills that caught our eye and might have some not immediately obvious effect and benefit are some that would seem to more easily enable the “removal of incompetent prosecutors” and stiffen penalties for illegally voting.
The incompetent prosecutor thing calls back to the recent fandango in El Paso, where people had to go through hell to get rid of the former DA there, who was apparently blowing all kinds of cases— a 1-woman wrecking crew of the local justice system if you believe the critics.
We do, frankly, given that El Paso is a blue as hell area. Folks there wouldn’t have gone through with unseating that DA if things weren’t dire. People tried to suggest it was some kind of conservative attempt to overturn an election, but that always seemed like some super-weak tea, given the azure quality of elections in the area.
One of the cases apparently in jeopardy was the prosecution of the mass shooter that lit up an El Paso Wal-Mart.
We had a hard time catching the Sheriff— he’s been in and out of meetings all week, and when not in a meeting, he’s been on the highway taking part in pursuits like this one, which began with a call for support from DPS:
That’s a 17-year-old Honduran, named Xavier Ceteno, who was apparently behind the wheel during a chase that saw speeds up over 130-miles an hour.
Here’s the text of what we’ve sent to the local papers about it:
Kinney County Sheriff's Deputies saw speeds of up to 130 mph while trying to arrest a 17-year-old from Honduras who is accused of trying to smuggle a load of illegal aliens through Kinney County Monday.
The pursuit began on RR 131, just past Rio Grande Electric-- coming up out of the Spofford area, after a call for backup from the Department of Public Safety. The suspect, 17-year-old Xavier Ceteno was all over the highway during the chase, after getting onto Highway 90 and apparently flooring it in the direction of Uvalde.
At one point, Ceteno was in the oncoming lane with an 18-wheeler bearing down upon him. Luckily, he was able to get over onto the oncoming shoulder, and the driver of the 18-wheeler stayed put-- not making contact with either Ceteno, or law-enforcement pursuing him. The chase ended with Ceteno trying to crash through a fence into the Arenosa ranch.
He and 5 illegal aliens were captured. He faces 5 felony counts of smuggling, and one felony count of evading arrest with a motor vehicle. Ceteno is originally from Honduras but has been living in San Antonio.
—Excerpt of a news release sent to local publishers in Kinney County
Folks who haven’t been keeping up with the KCSO Facebook page are in for a treat. The Chief Deputy wanted to flood it with some of the recent activity. Ceteno’s pursuit is just one of several highlights there, if you’re into spot news.
One other, possibly bigger, thing to come out of our brief conversation with the Sheriff— word that a solution to the female offender problem may be on the horizon. We’re told that the state is looking into rehabilitating “the Lopez Unit,” a prison down in the Rio Grande Valley near Edinburg.
Much like the Segovia and Briscoe units, there’s a lot of work involved in turning a state prison into a facility that meets immigration and jail standards. One of the biggest things is getting air conditioning sorted out. There’ll be other issues too— the Lopez Unit was originally built to house men.
One of our online associates caught this one in the New York Post: The discovery of more than 100 kids abandoned in a semi-tractor-trailer in Veracruz— bound for the U.S. border.
It’s labeled as an opinion piece, presumably because it highlights flipflopping by some prominent Democrats who at one point years ago were lobbying to close a loophole in immigration law that encourages this kind of child trafficking. Now that they’re in power, the writer says, there’s been nothing but crickets and the loophole remains.
Whatever you may think of the author’s argument, the facts seem to speak for themselves, resting among other things upon the bedrock of a New York Times expose highlighting the recent abuse of migrant child workers in the United States and how the Federal Government has facilitated it.
That’ll do it for now— as we mentioned above, expect something more later this week on the heels of that meeting in Quemado. Our guess about the purpose behind it may be completely wrong. We’ll see.
Until then— keep it high and tight and try to stay between the lines. It’s getting mean as hell out there.
As always, this newsletter is produced as independently as possible, given our employment with Kinney County. It is produced without input or oversight, and no one should mistake it for any kind of official communication. Any errors, bad takes, or opinions are entirely our own.