In Kinney County, Texas, a border community in the United States, there has been a significant surge in criminal prosecutions due to the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration under President Joe Biden’s administration. During a recent hearing held by the House Budget Committee, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith informed lawmakers that in 2020, when former President Donald Trump was in office, the county recorded a mere 134 criminal charges for prosecution.
However, after President Biden implemented multiple executive orders that revoked various border security policies, the number of criminal charges for prosecution skyrocketed. In 2021, there were nearly 3,000 charges, followed by approximately 6,800 charges in 2022, and over 5,800 charges in 2023. These statistics indicate a staggering increase in criminal charges for prosecution in Kinney County. From 2020 to 2022, there was an alarming surge of almost 5,000 percent, and from 2020 to 2023, the increase amounted to more than 4,200 percent.
“Kinney County normally operates within a $6 million-dollar annual budget,” Smith told lawmakers:
“However, the open border policies enacted by the Biden administration has required the county to significantly expand the capacities of our local criminal justice system, costing Texas taxpayers an additional 10.5 million dollars.”
Smith stated that public schools, first responder systems, and law enforcement agencies are experiencing severe consequences as a result of the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration. According to Smith’s testimony before lawmakers, tragic incidents have occurred in Kinney County where residents in need of emergency medical services have lost their lives due to the diversion of these services towards attending to migrant crossings.
“On both occasions, all available paramedics were already deployed to human smuggling events miles away and were unable to respond to the county residents,” Smith said. “This is a clear example of how open border policies have deadly consequences for Americans across this nation.”
Kinney County, with a population of less than 3,200 inhabitants, finds itself situated in the Del Rio Sector of the southern border. Interestingly, this particular region has witnessed an influx of nearly 200,000 migrants crossing from October 2023 until March of the current year.
