RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas (Border Report) — With a population of just 66,000 and a jail that holds only 275 people, leaders in rural Starr County, Texas, are worried about the state’s strict new immigration law that will allow any peace officer to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, signed SB 4 into law, drawing opposition from migrant advocates nationwide, and worrying lawmakers on the border.
Abbott says the measure is necessary because the federal government is failing to secure Texas’ border with Mexico.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who represents Starr County, says border security is a federal responsibility — not that of a state — and he disagrees with the new law.
“We got our issues there at the federal level, SB 4 is a state issue. But I wish that the governor would work with us a lot closer – instead of going solo like they do many a times,” Cuellar told Border Report on Tuesday.
“I have concerns about SB 4. This is a state issue, not a federal issue,” he said.
Cuellar was in Rio Grande City on Tuesday to tout $3 million in federal funds for Operation Stonegarden — a Homeland Security program that gives money to local law enforcement agencies on the border to help with overtime and equipment and allows agencies to assist Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
Starr County received $3 million in federal funds for local law enforcement through Operation Stonegarden on Dec. 19, 2023, in Rio Grande City, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
When asked if Stonegarden funds now will pay for officers for assist the state arresting migrants, Cuellar said he hoped it would not.
“Stonegarden was prepared more to fight – not to do immigration – but to fight crime, provide security. And I assume that the sheriff and the police folks are going to use this to fight crime and not to enforce immigration,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar is ranking member of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. He says the Fiscal 2023 funds tied for the most that Starr County has ever received in a year.
But Starr County Judge Eloy Vera told Border Report that the county will need more money if its only jail fills with migrants arrested by the state.
Currently, the jail leases bedspace to other counties, Vera said, and that helps to bring in money for this rural ranching county on the western edge of the Rio Grande Valley. But he said that might stop.
“If we’re going to fill them up with our prisoners that’s going to have a tremendous impact on our budget and why I’m so concerned,” Vera told Border Report.
“Certainly we want to have security on the border, and I think this will help in a certain way, however what scares me is the effects this might have on our jail and our courts – other costs we might be incurring in the county that we have not budgeted for,” Vera said. “Hopefully the state comes in with money also, not just law.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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