County gets help from feds on human smuggling
Wichita County will get some help from the federal government to handle the flood of human trafficking through the region.
Sheriff David Duke told county commissioners Monday two of his deputies who patrol U.S. 287 will become task force members with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol.
The deputies frequently stop vans carrying 10 or more undocumented people who ultimately are picked up by Border Patrol agents from Abilene, which is two-and-a-half hours away.
"Sometimes we bring them into the detention center, but they're not booked in because they're going to be released to immigration people as soon as the get here," Duke said. "Sometimes there's overtime with our deputies that work the case. Instead of the county footing the overtime bill, the federal government will pay the overtime."
Human smuggling a growing problem
Duke said human smuggling through the county is a growing problem.
"We got more smuggling cases last year than we ever had before," he said. "For every one we get there's probably 20 that go by.”
He blames the human flood on drug cartels.
"They're just pouring across the border. It's all by the same cartels. We have made cases for sex trafficking on 287 as well as just human trafficking and narcotics trafficking," Duke said. "The majority of drivers are members or associates of cartels. Everyone has a wristband on for how much money they make."
Most of the stops are made on southbound U.S. 287.
Coming through from Arizona
"They come up through Arizona because that state is so porous," he said.
Duke said the Arizona route is preferable because the southern half of Texas has such a heavy law enforcement presence on the lookout for the trafficking.
The sheriff said most of the trafficking through Wichita County is an effort to smuggle people to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, San Antonio, or the Houston area.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: County gets help from feds on human smuggling
