A Fed-up sheriff in Texas drove four illegal immigrants back to the US-Mexico border to deport them.
The sheriff revealed that he was left with no choice but to deport the migrants, considering the current situation amid the border crisis.
In a recent interview with the Epoch Times, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe revealed that the illegal immigrants were captured after a suspected smuggling vehicle crashed while his deputies were pursuing it on Wednesday morning.
The authorities then discovered the five illegal immigrants inside the vehicle, including a woman who was taken to hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
When the deputies attempted to hand the migrants over to the Border Patrol agents, their request was rejected and was told that the agents could only apprehend the four other migrants if they’d been medically assessed at a hospital first.
However, the four uninjured migrants “had declined any type of medical help,” Coe said.
“So I can’t let them walk the streets. I can’t say, ‘Hey, go, be free.’ Because I still have to protect the Constitution and protect the people in the county.” He explained.
“To let them go, undocumented, unaccounted for, just go because of a policy — I couldn’t do it.” The Texas sheriff added.
Following the patrol’s refusal, sheriff Coe put the migrants all inside his sheriff’s vehicle and drove an hour to Eagle Pass where the official port of entry to Mexico is located and dropped them off in the middle of the international bridge.
Meanwhile, the driver of the smuggling vehicle who was identified as a Mexican national and was wearing cartel-lined insignia, was later arrested and is now facing seven felony charges.
“It’s going to be the exception rather than the rule. But at the same time, if Border Patrol won’t take a group for whatever reason, I don’t have a choice,” Coe claimed.
Furthermore, following Coe’s actions, he later explained that he wasn’t sure whether his actions were illegal but argued that the local law enforcement should not have to tie up so many of its resources for the ongoing border crisis.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union accused the Coe of illegal deportation of the migrants, arguing that the state and the local governments don’t have the lawful authority to do so.
On Wednesday, the ACLU lawyers demanded the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office to submit further information regarding the recent ordeal and any prior similar incidents of attempted deportation of migrants.
