Texans don’t have EMS services because of demand from illegal immigrants, border sheriff tells Congress
Anna Giaritelli
Video Embed
AUSTIN, Texas — Distress calls and discoveries of dead immigrants in a rural area 50 miles north of the state’s border with Mexico have crippled first responders’ ability to serve residents and hurt the local government’s budget.
Sheriff Urbino “Benny” Martinez of Brooks County is prepared to tell Congress that the county’s 7,400 residents have been negatively affected by the influx of illegal immigration at the southern border because resources have been directed toward rescuing immigrants and not helping townspeople in urgent need.
“Brooks County emergency services are greatly impacted. Ambulances are being pulled from day-to-day operations to answer calls in remote areas where turnaround time is roughly four to five hours, leaving our constituents without emergency medical services,” Martinez will tell lawmakers on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce during a hearing in Weslaco, Texas, Wednesday, according to prepared testimony. “This has put a strain on the local health system.”
In 2022, Brooks County EMS services responded to 115 calls from illegal immigrants. In three of those incidents, the immigrants died while being transported to a regional hospital.
ARRESTS OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS ILLEGALLY CROSSING U.S.-MEXICO BORDER JUMPS 1,230% IN JANUARY
Far more immigrants have died attempting to sneak through the heavy brush and walk farther into the United States. In many cases, immigrants being transported by vehicle after making it across the border on foot and picked up by smugglers are dropped off on the side of the road and told to walk miles around Border Patrol’s highway checkpoint in Falfurrias.
That trek can become deadly if injured, lost, or without cell service, food, and water.
“Since 2009, the county has recovered 929 bodies of undocumented crossers, that includes 119 in 2021 and 90 in 2022,” according to a copy of the opening remarks that Martinez will deliver Wednesday evening. “We estimate that we recover less than half of all those who perish.”
The county has also had to cover costs involved in recovering immigrants, which total nearly $1 million over the past 14 years, he said.
In another instance in which an immigrant was transported by a medical helicopter, the county was only reimbursed $45,000 for a $320,000 bill for care, according to Martinez. The two hospitals in the remote area have had to write off costs for services provided to illegal immigrants.
More than 36,000 acres of land have been burned as a result of fires in Brooks County, according to Martinez, though he did not specify the time period in which the fires happened.
The House hearing on Wednesday is the first that Republicans have held since they promised to hold committee meetings outside Washington in an attempt to force Democrats to see the state of the border, where record-high illegal immigrant apprehensions over the past two years have had serious ramifications for border residents.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Officials from a healthcare organization, the Border Patrol union, and a Texas civil rights organization will join Martinez as witnesses at the hearing Wednesday.