Texas Border Mayor Fed Up with Government over Migrant Releases

by Bob Price

The mayor of a small Texas border town says he is “sick and tired” of the federal government’s failure to fix the illegal immigration problem impacting his community. The mayor’s comments follow months of massive releases of migrants — first from Central America and now from Africa.

Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, told staffers from the office of U.S. Senator John Cornyn and Representative Will Hurd during a town hall meeting earlier this week that his municipality has been overrun by illegal immigrants released by Border Patrol officials.

“It is not our purview; it is not our jurisdiction. It is your job to ensure that you convey the frustration that I share with you all to ensure that our representatives at the federal level are hearing it,” Mayor Lozano said. “It’s falling on deaf ears, and we are tired of it. We are sick and tired of the deaf ears.”

The Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, normally one of the nation’s quieter ones, has seen a 1,034 percent increase in the apprehension of migrant families and a 164 percent increase in unaccompanied minors, according to the latest Southwest Border Migration Report issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this month.

In May alone, Del Rio Sector officials apprehended a total of 8,562 migrants — including 5,272 family units and 571 unaccompanied minors. Many of those are simply released into the community after medical and criminal history screenings due to a lack of facilities for their detention.

Mayor Lozano expressed his frustration to the congressional staffers and stated that U.S. Senators Cornyn and Ted Cruz have not been to his city.

“They need to see firsthand what’s going on. They need to understand the frustrations that the commissioners, or that the city council, the school board, the hospital officials are managing [and] having to deal with,” the mayor explained.

“We’re frustrated. We’re extremely frustrated,” Lozano stated. “Our priorities on the city council are our streets, are our parks, are the economy, are the drive of the community and the places of worship and the places to have leisure activities. It is not the priority to solve immigration.”

In addition to the thousands of Central American migrants apprehended after illegally crossing the border, Del Rio officials are now also dealing with migrants from Central Africa who present a different kind of humanitarian issue.

From May 30 through June 5, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended more than 500 migrants from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, Breitbart News reported.

full story at https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/06/20/texas-border-mayor-fed-up-with-government-over-migrant-releases/