Sheriff visits border with Gov. Jindal

Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack returned from a tour of the Texas-Mexico border last week, impressed with the effort Texas officials are making to control the border and intercept illegal drugs entering the country, much of which he said makes its way into Louisiana.
The sheriff’s Aug. 4 visit to the McAllen area was part of a tour arranged by Louisiana House Speaker Chuck Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, and State Police Col. Mike Edmonson and included Gov. Bobby Jindal. It was Edmondson’s second trip to the area, according to a state police release.
Waguespack was recently elected president of the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association.
After a security briefing, the Louisiana visitors were given a boat tour and helicopter ride to survey the border along the Rio Grande River, a border that is crossed thousands of times annually, legally and illegally. The illegal crossings concerns Waguespack from the perspective of a law-enforcement official because it facilitates a thriving market for illicit drugs in this country, he said.
“Most of the drugs that make it here come from that area,” Waguespack said. “If they are not caught when they cross the border, they usually make their way to Interstate 10. The black tar heroin we are seeing now in Louisiana is coming from over there.”
Louisiana enjoys “a strong partnership with our counterparts at Texas DPS who play a critical role in providing us intelligence and situational awareness with regards to border security issues.” Edmonson said in a news release. “Whether it is illegal drugs, illegal weapons or undocumented immigrants, Louisiana is affected daily by security issues at the Mexico border.”
The trip emphasized how Louisiana is impacted by a criminal element from Mexico entering the state by way of Texas, Kleckley said.
Waguespack said the efforts by Texas Department of Public Safety officials and Gov. Rick Perry in the past two-and-a-half months to secure the border and interdict drug traffickers has been “amazing.”
Waguespack said, “They have been able to eliminate a lot of the human trafficking and drug trafficking. They are not waiting on the federal government but are using their own resources and patrolling drug hot spots and stash houses.”
Waguespack added, “They are keeping statistics that demonstrate how the border patrol has impacted the drug flow and interrupted operations.”
The tour covered about 10 to 12 miles of the river by a patrol boat and about 40 to 60 miles through the air by helicopter.
In the four to five hours of the tour, the Louisiana delegation got a better view of the problems associated with keeping the border secure, Waguespack said.
Waguespack said the flood of children that continue to cross the river is a “touching ordeal.”
“No one wants to see these kids returned to a violent situation,” he said. “We can’t just ignore that situation.”
Waguespack said there was a consensus that more could and should be done by the federal government about the migrants crossing from Mexico to Texas.
Louisiana and Texas officials discussed methods of sharing information and intelligence and established working networks that will allow law enforcement agencies to give each other “a heads-up,” he said.