Opinion
By Bethany Blankley (The Central Square)
As is the case in many Texas cities and small towns, families are increasingly losing loved ones to fentanyl poisonings and car crashes that law enforcement is directly linking to the border crisis.
In the oil and natural gas capital of far west Texas, a 10-year-old boy from Midland was killed by a Mexican after entering the country illegally after being deported five times.
At approximately 4:35 pm on Thursday, February 8, the Midland Police Department responded to a hit-and-run crash and arrested a driver after hitting a minor with a truck leaving him in critical condition, the Midland Police said . The young man was trying to cross the street after leaving school. MPD later announced that the hit-and-run victim was a 10-year-old boy. He was airlifted to Lubbock and later died from his injuries.
The alleged perpetrator, Rogelio Ortiz-Olivas, known as Juan Ortiz Perez according to his detainer at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, entered the country illegally and returned to Mexico through a Customs and Enforcement voluntary removal policy of borders. He then entered the country illegally five more times after being deported each time. After entering illegally in the seventh known hour, he headed to Midland, a few hours from the Mexican border.
The Midland County Sheriff’s Office has released information about its ICE detainer. The sheriff’s office became involved in Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security mission after Midland County declared a disaster declaration citing the border crisis. The governor held a roundtable in Midland in November 2021 expressing his commitment to law enforcement across the state. Since then, the OLS grant has helped augment law enforcement efforts across the state.
Midland County is one of 59 counties that have issued disaster declarations citing the border crisis. Judges and commissioners in 52 counties declared an invasion, including Crockett County in West Texas, after members of the judge’s family were killed in a head-on collision by an alleged human trafficker. The smuggler was driving over 100 miles per hour trying to evade law enforcement by driving north from the border.
Ortiz-Olivas is being held in the Midland County Jail. He was initially charged with grievous bodily harm, but the charge was changed to accident causing death.
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In response to the news, IDEA Travis and Midland ISD released a joint statement, saying, “IDEA and the Midland Independent School District are mourning the loss of one of our IDEA Travis students after a tragic accident near our school yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the student’s family and loved ones. Counselors will provide mental health support to students and staff on campus. As the safety of our students continues to be our number one priority, we urge motorists to use caution when pedestrians are present to avoid tragedies.”
The news comes after three teenagers were shot and killed in southwest Houston as they walked home on a Friday night after going bowling. They were killed by a twice-deported Salvadoran with a criminal record who illegally entered the United States “on an unknown date and at an unknown location without inspection or parole by U.S. immigration officials,” according to a statement from Immigration and United States Customs Enforcement. One of the teenagers, hit in the head, did not survive.
Ortiz-Olivas is similar to millions of others who have entered the United States illegally from port to port, intentionally trying to evade capture, known as escape. Many are believed to have criminal records; Most are believed to be single men of military age, authorities said at The Center Square. More than two million fleeing people are now estimated to have entered the United States illegally since January 2021, according to data obtained from a Border Patrol agent and CBP FOIA records. Law enforcement officials have no idea how many escapees there are in the United States, who or where they are.
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Several retired FBI counterintelligence officials have warned of the dangers they pose, including the likelihood that they will commit violent crimes or terrorist acts.
At a recent press event in Eagle Pass, Texas, Abbott met with 13 Republican governors to express their continued efforts to secure the border. He said President Joe Biden’s “open border policies” are having “a devastating impact on every community across our nation.”
“We have seen the catastrophic consequences of Joe Biden’s open border policies. We see the dangers every day,” Abbott said, adding that Americans “don’t know what imminent dangers we may face.”
Since Abbott launched OLS in March 2021, law enforcement has arrested more than 498,300 illegal aliens and made more than 39,200 criminal arrests, with more than 35,400 felony charges reported, according to the latest data from the governor’s office.
They also seized more than 458 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill more than anyone else in the United States and Canada.
Reprinted with permission from The Center Square.