KINNEY COUNTY, Texas – Hundreds of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who been dispatched to Del Rio to assist with the recent surge of Haitian migrants are having trouble finding a place to stay in the area.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe said because of limited hotel space in the Del Rio area, he decided to help some of troopers find temporary shelter.
Coe said after he received a call from a DPS trooper asking for a place to stay, he started to solicit for temporary housing for troopers on social media.
The sheriff said the response has been overwhelming.
“We’ve had ranchers call. We’ve had people that have hunting lodges. They can handle 20 people. They can take 30 people. We’ve had a number of people call and say, ‘I have a spare bedroom,’” Coe said.
Coe said people want to help law enforcement anyway they can.
“They’re tired of the situation, the open border situation, everything that’s happening there, they’re tired. They’re very appreciative of the law enforcement personnel that are here to try to help solve the problem,” he said.
Cole Hill, who manages a ranch on the Uvalde and Kinney County line, said there’s been an increase of migrants crossing through his property this year.
“I’ve had multiple houses on the ranch broken into plenty of times this year. They break windows, they kick in doors,” Hill said.
As more law enforcement head to the area to assist U.S. Border Patrol, Cole is opening his ranch to them.
“I feel like it’s the least we can do. These guys come from all across the country, all across Texas and all across the country, sacrificing weeks at a time to come and do a dangerous job out here,” Hill said.
Hill said he’s welcoming Galveston County sheriff deputies to his ranch soon.
“They’ll be using this guest house from now through at least the end of January,” he said.
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