HIDALGO COUNTY: A Rio Grande Valley constable is concerned. He said the number of illegal crossers being caught by his precinct is picking up.
The constable for Hidalgo County Precinct 3 said Anzalduas Park is starting to get busy again. He said this may be a sign of what is to come.
Anzalduas Park was quiet on Thursday. No illegal crossers were in sight. Lawmen assigned to patrol said the scene is different when the sun goes down.
Precinct 3 Constable Larry Gallardo said in the last three months, he has caught more than 200 illegals. “It’s slowly increasing. One day, there may not be anything, another day it may be a lot, you know. Once the sun goes down, it seems like the smugglers are just bringing them across. Sometimes, we’ll have groups of 20 or groups of 10, but you know if you add them all up within a week’s period of time, all of us at every level of law enforcement. If you add all those numbers, it’s probably 500, 600, 700 coming across,” he said.
Constable Gallardo said his priority is to keep the park safe.
“It’s our job to keep them out of our park because you never know. You never know who’s going to come pick them up. Basically, if we’re able to detain them and turn them over to Border Patrol, it keeps them from going into the stash houses that are north of here and being kidnapped, ransomed, or being raped. … So, those are our concerns,” he said.
Gallardo said his deputy constables are mostly coming across OTMs or other than Mexicans. Many are from China and Brazil.
He said, “We keep hearing about another wave coming in like it happened last year. We’re just staying prepared. We’re working together with local state and federal law enforcement to be able to share information, that way we’re on top of this.”
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley are also on high alert. Deborah Boyce said they are seeing a difference already in their numbers.
Deborah Boyce works for Catholic Charities, she said, “Around Easter time, we had a higher influx of refugees coming in, but today is definitely been one of our busiest mornings in recent weeks. We had over 50 refugees come in here at the humanitarian center of the Catholic Charities operates at Sacred Heart Church.”
Border Patrol Spokesperson Omar Saldana said that the amount of illegal crossers they are seeing is common time of year.
Constable Gallardo said common or not, he will continue to patrol his stretch of the border making sure his park stays safe.
