More Accusations of U.S. Govt. Helping Cartels
& A Response to Allegations of Racism Associated with Op. Lone Star
There have been quiet, rarely widely reported allegations of U.S. Government personnel helping the cartels for months now. Some of it has been somewhat excusable— happening as relatively minor interactions along the riverbanks. Indeed, we have written about some of this before— waving it away as basically a ground-level judgement call meant to prevent expensive water rescues and loss of life along the river. But as we write this, there are new, credible allegations of higher level contact, saying that in so many words that U.S. Officials are comfortable picking up the phone and making calls to the Cartel smugglers, to find out how many illegal aliens will be coming over.
This goes beyond basic ground-level decisions made for humanitarian reasons, to something much closer to the awkward supposition that right now, the Cartels have managed to basically turn the U.S. Government Border Security apparatus into a logistical arm of their smuggling operations.
More on that, in just a moment.
First— the credible allegations we mentioned. They happened on FOX, on the Jesse Watters show, during an appearance by journalists Angie Wong, and Ali Bradley describing how it works: https://video.foxnews.com/v/6296595772001/#sp=show-clips
It should be noted, Watters sells Bradley short— saying she’s been covering the border for a month. She’s been up and down the border repeatedly over the course of the last year, at least. We’re less familiar with Ms. Wong’s work, but will be looking for more of it, soon.
Here is some of our previous reporting on this subject— addressing what seemed to be relatively innocent interactions between Texas National Guard and Coyotes on the other side of the banks: Skip down to about midway through for the relevant portions.
A month previous to that Dispatch above, we also addressed how one could make the argument that the Cartels have basically somehow managed to convert the Border Patrol and various Non Governmental Organizations assisting the dispersal of these illegal aliens, into cunningly deployed segments of their trafficking networks, running in parallel to their more illicit traffic.
At the time we originally wrote these words, we had no expectation that co-operation would become so commonplace, that U.S. Government employees could allegedly pick up a phone and take orders from a Cartel Cardinal, with word of how many people to expect at a given location.
This is bananas. Why even pretend at this point? If true, the Cartels really are running the border, and the U.S. Government is essentially taking their orders— like some Dominos Pizza flunky— a whipping boy for the worst customer in town— replace the bobbed, bleached Karen demanding to see a manager, with an icy cold ruthless killer to make the comparison complete.
And U.S. Taxpayers are paying for it, seeing their money get siphoned into the hands of hard-to-hold-to-account non governmental organizations that are seemingly happily taking all comers and shipping them into the US, and paying them for the privilege.
There have been assertions in the past by the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition that they do not in fact access taxpayer dollars to accomplish their efforts of aiding illegal aliens and amnesty seekers in Del Rio. It is a laughable statement, as we demonstrated at the time— and repeat for you here in the following quote block:
Non-Governmental Organization Funding Confusion
Readers may have noted some articles elsewhere, indicating that area NGO’s helping move illegal aliens around the country do not get directly funded by U.S. Taxpayers. We are speaking mainly of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition and its migrant processing center in Del Rio, but there are quite a few others out there under various names like “Horizons,” “Endeavors,” and “Refugee Services of Texas,” and more.
Longtime readers may already be anticipating where we are going here, but let’s preface anything further by pointing out that by most reasonable measures the NGO’s are doing good work— feeding hungry people and keeping mass amounts of illegal aliens from piling up in Border cities and creating horrible situations.
It might even be said, that their efforts are necessary, given the Federal Government’s failure to secure the border. However, their successful operations also prevent Americans from witnessing the absolute state of things. By efficiently funneling illegal aliens into the United States, they prevent cameras and journalists from documenting the flood of illegal immigration in ways that would resonate with the public at large. Recall the alarm that seemed to flood the nation at the sight of drone camera footage showing “Little Haiti” beneath the Del Rio port of entry. The sight was so visceral, so alarming, that the FAA moved to ban further drone flights under what seems to have been a thin pretext— a pretext that was blown out of the water after DPS seemingly defied the Federal Government by taking the same reporter that used the drone up in a helicopter for more footage the very next day. It was a day after that, that the drone restriction was more or less lifted. Weird.
Let us return to the question of NGO funding. The Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition is almost certainly technically correct in saying they do not receive funding from Homeland Security or other Government sources. Technically correct is frequently the best kind of correct, but it can also be very misleading.
The Cavalry - Dispatch took a look at the organization’s tax filing with the IRS— available to the public, albeit with some digging around on the IRS website. In 2019, the organization took in slightly more than 100-thousand dollars in “donations from private or Government sources.” Do not mistake this for a smoking gun. It is not. That comes later. That quoted phrase is simply an entry on the 990EZ form, and one is reasonably certain that in the case of the VVBHC, all of that 100-thousand dollars came from private sources only— it simply shares a space on the form with possible government sources.
In a recent interview elsewhere, a VVBHC official stated that the majority of their funding comes from faith based organizations, and some corporations, like “Save the Children.” Faith based organizations would include groups like Catholic Charities, Church World Service, and UMCOR, which is a Methodist organization.
VVBHC doubtlessly receives money from many other groups, but let us focus on these three as they are fairly typical, and will help illustrate why it is almost impossible for any NGO involved in migrant aid to claim with a straight face that 100% of their funding is free of taxpayer entanglements.
According to CharityWatch.org, Church World Service gets more than half of it’s money from government sources. They point to CWS’s own tax returns, and publicly available auditing. Many charities publish their financials, as transparency encourages donations.
UMCOR might see almost a quarter of its funding from the Government, according to CharityWatch.org, presumably, it is able to draw on greater amounts of money from Church members nationwide for the bulk of the remainder.
For Catholic Charities, one need not look far. It’s right there on wikipedia. In 2010, they reported revenues of $4.7 Billion, $2.9 Billion of that came from the U.S. Taxpayer, including those who aren’t even Catholic. Many critics online say the organization isn’t terribly Catholic itself these days, and has simply become a defacto arm of U.S. Government welfare distribution.
In the case of other refugee-related NGO’s, like Refugee Services of Texas, it is common for them to cite right on their website, direct funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Circling back to the VVBHC, it is again technically correct that they do not receive monies directly from the U.S. taxpayer— but one finds the statement rather disingenuous in light of how much government money surely is in fact coming their way after being filtered through these other organizations. If we were talking about drug money, we would say it was being laundered.
See the entire dispatch that block was lifted from here.
What grinds our gears the most, isn’t just that taxpayer dollars are being spent in such an underhanded way. It’s the way it’s being concealed from the public— as though there is knowledge of how bad the truth looks.
Published comments from Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith are addressing recent accusations by the ACLU of TX and others that Operation Lone Star is a racist disgrace.
We are unfamiliar with “The Center Square” website, which appears to be based in Chicago, and operated by the “Franklin News Foundation,” some kind of a non-profit news organization, similar perhaps to the Texas Tribune. We’ll have to investigate further.
In any event, they published what appears to be the result of a somewhat lengthy interview with the County Attorney.
Allegations made by Texas Democratic lawmakers that Operation Lone Star is racist are “absurd,” Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith says.
Smith, who’s prosecuted the most cases involving illegal immigration since Operation Lone Star began, says the first trespassing case he prosecuted involved two U.S. citizens who are white men.
“People from approximately 150 different countries are illegally entering Texas” as a result of the Biden administration’s open border policies, Smith told The Center Square. “I’m not sure how anyone can honestly make a claim of racism towards so many different nationalities. I could point out that the majority of the arresting officers are Hispanic, but taking time to argue these points gives legitimacy to an absurd argument to begin with.”
It’s a pretty decent article, with a reasonably good timeline of events leading up to the present, if anyone needs a refresher. No clue when the Sheriff and County Attorney found time to speak with the reporter— both men have been refusing most interviews, though seem to make room for those they are already familiar with.
Houston’s KPRC, Channel 2 has filed a pretty excellent “investigates” piece highlighting the work in Kinney County by what’s become known locally as the “Galveston Crew.”
The Galveston Crew are the loose assembly of Galveston County Sheriff’s Deputies, and Deputy Constables that have been coming to Kinney County to assist. As is frequently noted, Kinney County only has 6 full-time deputies on staff, so the extra manpower has been much appreciated.
One item of note that surprised us: Constable Jimmy Fullen from Galveston’s Precinct 2 has been down to Kinney County 9 times.
Check out KPRC’s reporting for a breakdown of how they arrange matters of funding, travel, and assignment for the Galveston Crew, and a host of other good bits.
Speaking of Constable Fullen and the Galveston Crew, they’ve been documenting their efforts pretty regularly on Facebook. Their most recent, highlighting an event that happened yesterday (Feb. 9)— when an out-of-towner in a red BMW was caught in Kinney County and accused of smuggling more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine.
It should be noted, that kind of quantity begs for serious charges— possibly federal. Speaking with Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, he is awaiting receipt of a full report on the bust, before issuing a formal news release.
And on that note, we should probably wrap this up by mentioning our day job at the Sheriff’s Office in Kinney County, and the usual disclaimer that any opinions and errors made here are entirely our own, and that this newsletter is an independent work product predating our hiring, and is created without the oversight or active input of any Kinney County officials. Should readers be concerned about the potential of a conflict of interest in our reporting? Absolutely. Not only are we employed by Kinney County— we live here too. Conflicts of interest all over the place.
One other bit of housekeeping— a discrepancy between our reporting on the deceased National Guardsman who was shot and killed on Fort Clark Springs, and what is being said by the Texas Military Department. It was initially indicated by them that the soldier died after airlift to a San Antonio hospital, and many organizations have been reporting that. We reported that he was pronounced dead at the scene.
It is a minor point of difference, but one that someone saw fit to bring to our attention. The fact is this: The soldier was pronounced dead by a local Justice of the Peace, before the helicopter could take off. We are no strangers to making mistakes, and being wrong— but on this count, we are confidently correct. In any case, this changes nothing for the young man, or his bereaved family.
Someone at the Texas Military Department did a good job of getting the information out in a timely fashion to the state at large, and made what seems like an innocent mistake.
The soldier has been identified as Specialist Dajuan Lester Townes of Spring, Texas.
He was 19 years old. A full report from the Texas Rangers is still pending.
Just a quick note: Angie Wong, labeled as a journalist above, after some research appears to be more of a political activist first, and a journalist distant second. Folks will have to make their own assessments of what she's saying, with this in mind.