East Texas sheriff, former border agent, sheds light on recent trip to border

TYLER, TX (KLTV) - An East Texas sheriff is shedding light on what’s happening on our border and the debate over the proposed border walls.

Wood County Sheriff Tom Castloo returned from a trip to the Texas border with Mexico and shares insights into what he’s seen firsthand.

Castloo, who has 20-plus years of experience as a border patrol agent, said, “It’s basically the same game that’s been going on for decades; immigration is a political football."

And recently seeing who was trying to come across, Castloo says something is out of place.

“We have a large group of aliens that are coming through our border, right, trying to figure out where the money’s coming from. It’s like moving an army. They’re bringing children with them that don’t belong to them,” Castloo says.

Would a wall make a difference? In some sections, Castloo says, the wall comes to an end.

"Around Del Rio, port of entry, all you have to do is walk around the end of the fence. We need the wall. We need it in certain places just to slow down the mass of humanity that's coming across. Though it would cut a lot of people off from the river, and leave some houses on the other side of the wall," the sheriff says.

Former Overton officer and longtime border patrol agent Joe Cantu says a wall would make little difference.

“My God, they were coming over in groups of 100-150 at a time. We need to tell the politicians to get the hell out of the way and make a law that’s good for the country, not the illegals,” Cantu said in a phone interview from the border.

Castloo breaks it down with his homespun logic.

"Make the politicians quit playing with laws. You don't leave your door open and go to the grocery store, and that's what we're doing now," Castloo says.

The sheriff says while he was there, apprehensions numbered more than a thousand a day in a week’s time.

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