Republican congressional candidate Nathaniel Moran visits US-Mexico border

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - On Friday, Smith County Judge and Republican congressional candidate Nathaniel Moran visited the US-Mexico border joined by six other candidates and Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales. The group was able to see what is happening there, on the ground, and spoke with those who live nearby in El Paso and Hudspeth County. Moran described the experience as “stark.”

“Seeing where the wall stops in the middle of ranch land and the farmers telling you, ‘this is where they stopped building the wall and this is where folks cross over and as a result of that I have damage on my property and I have security concerns,’” he said. “And you talk to local law enforcement and they, Hudspeth County, has about three patrol deputies on any given shift and they’re being asked to go out in the middle of nowhere to effectively patrol the border for their county, and that’s just simply unacceptable.”

Moran said one border patrol officer told them only about three percent of those who assault border patrol officers actually get prosecuted.

“That’s just not acceptable, that’s contrary to the rule of law,” Moran said. “Then when you talk to the border patrol agents themselves, they say, ‘look, we just want to do our job.’ They’re law enforcement officers, they’re now being asked to do processing paperwork most of the time, most shifts, that should be done by ICE.”

The group also visited a space where about 1,500 people who have crossed the border are meant to be housed. Moran said it’s overflowing with 2,400 individuals.

“You know that they cannot be humane in any sense and is certainly an indication of the widespread epidemic that we’re seeing of folks just crossing the border and turning themselves in because they know under the current policies of the administration that they’re not going to get sent back,” Moran said. “They can ask for asylum and more than likely they’re going to get to stay, and there’s really no rule of law being enforced down there.”

Moran said this is turning into a national security issue. He said his goals would be to get more border patrol agents, investment in technology along the border to provide safety and security, and more physical barriers.

“We need more of the wall built. There’s locations where there’s no substitute whatsoever to building the wall and until we build the wall along our southern border, we’re not going to be as safe and secure as we should be,” Moran said.

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