While Congress and the Obama administration debate a $3.7 billion emergency spending bill for the border, volunteer groups and private ranchers in one Texas County provide assistance to an overburdened U.S. Border Patrol,
The Daily Signal reported.
Located 100 miles away from the southernmost tip of the state, Brooks County is home to a U.S. Border Patrol's Falfurrias checkpoint that smugglers often attempt to bypass by forcing immigrants to take an alternate route through private ranches.
Just this month,
Breitbart reported that the Brooks County Sheriff's Office swore in two more volunteer police officers from neighboring Hidalgo County to help cope with the flood of illegal immigrants being transported north by smugglers.
Border Patrol agents at the Falfurrias station apprehended 4,042 illegal immigrants in June, which is twice the number detained in January, according to The Daily Signal.
For several years, local ranchers such as Ronnie Osborn have worked with the sheriff's department providing them with tips and leads when they encounter illegal immigrants.
Osborn told The Daily Signal that only a few weeks ago, he apprehended a group of men from El Salvador and drove them to the Border Patrol agents, whom he alerted ahead of time.
Osborn also knows of the danger posed by the immigrants having had his home broken into recently while he was getting ready for an interview about "lawlessness" on the border.
"is not the first time this has happened," he told
National Review, "I have Border Patrol in here every day chasing groups, just about."
In addition to ranchers like Osborn, the Texas Border Volunteers have been aiding law enforcement since it was established in 2006.
According to
U.S. News & World Report, the group has reported 2,142 illegal immigrants on ranch land in Brooks County since 2008, when they first began logging their reports. U.S. Border Patrol has been able to apprehend 1,180.
Unfortunately, many of those crossing the border illegally perish along the route north.
As a result of the high number of deaths, the county has come to be known as "Death Valley" for illegal immigrants,
according to NBC News.
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