One year ago, I took a trip to the Mexican border along the Rio Grande Valley to witness firsthand the crisis facing our nation. During a three-day visit, public officials from all over the country received briefings from a group of experts including Border Patrol officials, state troopers, neighboring state representatives, non-government organizations (NGOs) and local citizens affected by illegal crossings. We visited border wall sections, points of entry and saw operations from helicopters and boats along the Rio Grande.
One year later, I took the same tour and received similar briefings with public officials. What I witnessed was completely different. State troopers explained that the new policies have so drastically reduced illegal crossings that they no longer patrol the frontline border or need support from neighboring states because the United States is not allowing illegal crossings, otherwise known as “catch and release,” to take place. In Fiscal Year 2025, which ended last month, Border Patrol recorded roughly 238,000 migrant apprehensions at the southern border, CBS News reported. Compare that to FY 2022 under the Biden administration, which saw 2.2 million apprehensions, almost 10 times this year’s levels!
Mexican and South American cartels are the very definition of a terrorist organization. Despite what you hear in the media, the mission of the military and law enforcement is to “seal and repel” at the border, not to wage war with the cartel. Troopers briefed us on sophisticated methods the cartels use to make billions smuggling humans, drugs and oil. Yes, oil! Troopers are now able to perform more commercial vehicle inspections, which led to the discovery of how the cartel is trafficking the unrefined oil that they steal from Mexico. They smuggle it into the United States, where importers have it illegally refined and sold on the energy market, cutting cartels in on the profits.
Since Texas requires commercial truck drivers to speak English, the cartel recruits English-speaking U.S. citizens to operate tankers. If you still don’t think Mexico is an issue, consider that Mexico’s raids on drug labs this year have netted literal tons of methamphetamine. That’s only a small portion of what makes it into the United States. The cartels may not be blowing up buildings or hijacking planes in America, but make no mistake, they are terrorizing U.S. citizens.
A human trafficking expert from the Department of Health & Human Services who spoke to us on the tour exposed how many children were trafficked through the southern border over the past several years and were forced into the sex trade or hard labor at meat packing and chicken plants. A direct quote from this government official, “We are now in the process of working on what we turned our heads on over the past several years.” Federal agencies are now working to locate tens of thousands of children who were supposedly placed with host families in the United States, but they are having very little success finding them.
The number of immigrants with violent convictions who crossed into the United States is almost insurmountable to deport. These criminals are now in your jurisdictions and neighborhoods. ICE has been tasked to find them and deport them. Imagine destroying the Hoover Dam, then going back after it was rebuilt and returning all the water one single teacup at a time. Recently, ICE agents in Chicago apprehended a convicted murderer residing illegally in the United States. A federal judge placed a deportation order for removal, but since Illinois is a sanctuary state, ICE was never notified of his release, and he was allowed to roam free until last month.
Last year we toured Catholic Charities, one of countless NGOs that make huge profits processing undocumented immigrants into the United States with little vetting. Last year, the facility was bustling with migrants from all over the world. I found it ironic that I had to show identification even though it was full of immigrants who had none. This time, we did not visit them because that location is almost nonexistent. But don’t worry about Catholic Charities; they’ve changed their mission to educating immigrants on how to avoid deportation.
Last year, portions of the wall were missing, and cameras were not working properly or at all. Border Patrol commanders explained that now cameras are being upgraded, 17 miles of buoy barriers in the Rio Grande are being installed, the “catch and release” policy is no longer in effect, and they have a huge surge of new technology and construction on the way with the “Big Beautiful Bill” recently being passed. Under the current administration, no immigrant who has entered the United States illegally has been released.
Is the border fixed? Absolutely not! But it is far more secure than it was a year ago. Current policies and directives that manage our borders come from presidential executive orders. We are now seeing how these executive orders directly affect our borders and how ineffective orders can quickly overwhelm communities, which was happening over the past several years.
We need bipartisan legislation to fix laws to allow law-abiding people to come here legally to ensure our country stays industrially and militarily strong for centuries to come. Ask your House representative or senator for bipartisan legislation to begin fixing our current immigration laws. You elected these representatives to make decisions based on what’s right, not what they need to do to get reelected. Hold them accountable, both Republican and Democrat.
Jim DeWees is the Carroll County sheriff.
