Brooks County, on the front line of broken immigration system, gets no help from Washington
By Mark Collette, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Texas | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The federal government offers
County officials have asked their congressional delegation for help, including U.S. Sens.
The migrants die circumventing the
With deaths here at or near record highs, and the local oil business in a bust, the
"We're more than lean," said Chief Deputy
Deputy
Deputies now make just
On that salary, they must dredge up the motivation to venture regularly out into the wilderness -- about once every three days on average, but often multiple times a day in the brutal summer -- to pick up corpses in various stages of decay.
State law charges local authorities with investigating unattended deaths.
The physically and emotionally exhausting forays into the ranches in this 944-square-mile county are grimly routine. The travel, investigation and paperwork for one body can take an entire shift or more, leaving the county with no one on patrol. One deputy investigated 25 bodies last year. Another has done it 37 times since 2001. Davila has done it more than 20 times.
Once, they took a 911 call from a woman whose husband was dying at her side. But it was dark. She didn't know where she was. The rest of their group had moved on. There were no landmarks, buildings, fences. Her phone battery was dying.
Turn it off, they told her. Call us when the sun rises and you can see.
In the morning, she called again in tears. She heard a helicopter in the distance, but it was too late.
The work often leaves the
"But I'm here," Davila said. "I'm from here. I was born, I was raised here. As crazy as it sounds, you try to make this a better place. And our victories come far and few between. I had a case where a 15-year-old girl, undocumented alien, was sexually assaulted. And we got the guys. We got all the smugglers. We worked that case That day, you know, I felt the good guys won that day ... We stood up for that little girl and we made a good case. It was a good feeling. It didn't matter at that point what they were paying us or what was going on."
State and federal officials say sexual assaults of both adults and unaccompanied children are on the rise on the migrant trail in
The deputies know they can help individuals but they can scarcely make a dent in human smuggling driven by geopolitical forces. And as the horrors in the brush threaten to burn out the deputies, they also drain the sheriff's coffers.
The county spent more than
The office used to receive state and federal grants, worth nearly
County employees took a 3 percent pay cut last fall. Elected officials, including the sheriff, took a 10 percent cut. This month, the county dropped health insurance for employees and their dependents.
As deputies and administrative staff leave the
"Even a guy coming out of the academy wouldn't have an interest," he said. "There's nothing to give him. What would you provide, besides experience? There's nothing else. Salary is not there. Insurance is not there. So how are you going to attract anyone to come in and provide the service that you're looking for?"
About 80 percent of the work is related to human and drug smuggling coming up
Like other small towns, listening to the police scanner in
But now, after 20 years, when people in
"It's funny how eight miles up the road it's a big difference," he said.
He will still volunteer time as a reserve deputy under Martinez -- he knows his departure hurt his old boss' feelings, but he knows Martinez understands.
Davila, at his new post, will feel the tug of home over the county line.
The adrenaline rush, chasing smugglers and coyotes.
The somber duty, trying to identify the dead who, like him, in their own way, needed to get to a better place.
The rare oasis of victory, standing up for a little girl lost and violated in the brush.
"Do I miss
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