On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving community with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with the news makers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the.

Thanks for joining us for On the Record this week.

I'm Randy Beamer.

It's been more than a week now since dozens of immigrants were found dead in that tractor trailer on the Southwest side.

And the victims have now been identified with ages ranging from 13 to 55.

Most were from Mexico.

Also from Guatemala.

And Honduras.

So the questions now are there are answers as to how we can at least prevent more tragedies like this?

How can local leaders deal with that?

They're grappling with all kinds of other problems as well.

Joining us now, County Judge Nelson Wolf.

Thanks for coming in.

First of all, what what do we know now since that happened?

And you get an idea of what needs to happen from your point of view?

Well, obviously, it's a very tragic event.

We spent time at our hospital.

We treated people that our county hospital commissioner, Rebecca Cliff Rogers and I spent time with Kim Reno, who's our medical examiner, who had to take all these bottles, bodies.

We had to hire more people to be able to process it.

And then we met with representatives from Guatemala and from Mexico.

And our donors and for the transfer of the body, some will go back to one of their countries.

Some may be buried here.

But now we think we've got them all identify it and be able to decide what to do with the body.

So it's a real tragic, terrible thing to have to deal with.

But we're not going to have any answer to it until Congress steps up and passes a comprehensive immigration.

What do you think of the responses from state leaders nationally?

I think it's terrible what we're getting a state.

They're taking these people, throwing them in a prison, and then they don't take prisoners from our jail when they're ready to go.

They do humanize them.

They make them say they sound like they're criminals.

They know what not.

They're not they're honest people trying their best to get to a place where they have a chance to make a decent living.

And by the way, we need those kind of workers.

We cannot hire enough people.

We're not reproducing ourselves, the United States.

So we need some kind of a legal way for that to happen.

Without that.

They're going to continue to come across.

They're going to risk their lives and we're going to see continue to see tragedies.

But if you say even expanded guest worker programs, people hear the word amnesty in many just recoiled, say no.

Let me tell you this.

Let me ask you this question.

If somebody was living here for ten years, outstanding citizen, paying their taxes, doing everything illegally, but they still haven't got their citizenship, I'd rather have that person then somebody I don't know come here.

My all our all of all of our families were immigrants.

My grandmother, even when I was growing up, we're still considered alien and alien because she still didn't have her papers.

So they are not bad people.

There's criminals, obviously.

There's some we got to a bunch of them here, right here in the United States.

The smugglers are based here in the United States.

They are the real bad guys.

And finally, they're starting to make an effort to do more about that.

But some of the people who are coming across now are the same ones who had come across before and didn't need smugglers when it wasn't such a tight border.

And so that smuggling industry has really mushroomed.

Because this room is very profitable.

These people spend their life savings trying to think that they're going to get a free ride or protected right across the border.

So what can state leaders do?

The governor of Texas say, I disagree with him on a lot of things.

One thing he did do that I thought was really good he's going to set up more inspection stations on the major roads coming out of Laredo rather badly to recheck some of these trucks So I thought that was a good move.

They ought to concentrate on the smugglers.

That's where people are really getting hurt.

And like I say, you got to have a better system of how you handle immigration nationally.

Is there any hope that the state will deal with this, you think, in the next.

Year this state just demagogs it dehumanize these people.

They're not the problem.

The problem is we don't have a good immigration policy.

One other question.

You think the state might do or not do is on guns.

Right after the tragedy in your valley, you brought up a lot of people brought up you wanted a special session without a special session.

The governor is not calling it.

You think there will be any change?

No, I don't think so.

They're bought and owned by the NRA.

We had one strong Republican from Texas, Senator Cornyn, who stood up in the United States Senate, passed a bipartisan bill.

Republicans up there voted for it.

At least 15 of them did.

And it was a step toward trying to get control and keeping guns away from people who should not have them, from criminals, from people that got mental problems or people that are really sick and just mean hearted.

That's what we're trying to do, not from law abiding people.

But you're not going to see him do anything in the state of Texas, I don't think.

Unless maybe you run for state after you're retiring.

Well, that's another whole show.

But before we go, we have a couple of minutes here to talk about baseball.

The push for a new baseball stadium, minor league baseball stadium in San Antonio.

What where are we on that?

There's three different groups or three different sites being looked at now.

Yeah, there's different the difference is now we've always had ownership out of the town.

Now some private people are talking with them about ownership.

And so we have one group of business looking at a site up north of town close to UTSA, another group of businesses looking at a downtown site, some working along the San Pedro Creek.

And then there's a developer looking at the Lone Star site.

So the difference this time is that you've got local people involved The difference this time is Major League Baseball has taken over minor league baseball and said, look, you're going to have to build a new stadium if you're going to keep professional baseball in San Antonio.

So I'm hoping something's going to work.

I always like downtown better.

Maybe you see it along the creek because that's where the guy.

With his own wolf stadium named after himself says it's not good enough.

I'm afraid it didn't rebuilt that 30 years ago almost.

And they talked about trying to restructure it.

But it's so expensive to do that, you'd be better off being on it.

So bottom line right now, as where we are with these site searches.

Yeah.

What do you think the odds are in the next?

Well, I think well, I'm going to be out of here almost six months, months.

And I doubt that it'll happen while I'm here.

But I think at some point it will it take a partnership.

The city and the county came together to do the soccer.

We created a public private partnership both of their I'll take in rent.

It probably have to be something like that to get a new baseball stadium.

Could that happen while you're still county judge?

Some steps could be taken as people can lock down a site.

You know, I hope they do.

Baseball stadiums in the central city are proving to be very popular.

We know north of the city, there's, you know, obviously tremendous growth.

So it can work.

So once you're out of office, you can either run for state office or you could manage a baseball team.

Hey, there you go.

I think I'd rather manage the baseball team.

Understand that.

Thank you very much.

County Judge Nelson.

Wolf, appreciate you coming in.

Right.

Thanks, Randi.

Now we're talking there about illegal immigration and what stresses that puts on local governments here.

But right now, we're going to talk about legal immigrants coming through San Antonio in numbers like we haven't seen in quite some time.

And what the city is trying to do to kind of streamline efforts to help.

Jessica Dovalina is the assistant director of the city's Department of Human Services.

Thank you very much for coming in.

You're opening a new center as of today on San Pedro to deal with the numbers of immigrants that are that are being stopped by Border Patrol but are being allowed to stay in this country legally as they await what happens now.

This is tell us about this population, because it's we see remain in Mexico.

We see title 42.

We assume those people are immediately sent across the border.

That's not the case.

It's not in.

A lot of.

Cases.

Right.

Not the case for all migrants.

So the individuals that we see here are individuals that are exempt from Title 42.

So they're processed by Border Patrol and given permission to travel in the US while they're going through their asylum seeking process.

And what group is that?

Why are they being allowed to stay instead of those sent back different countries?

Right.

It's typically individuals from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba.

In the past, we've seen individuals from Haiti and then also from a couple of African countries, Angola and the Democratic.

Republic, because we don't have agreements to send them back to those countries.

That's correct.

And so how big are the numbers of those people now just coming through San Antonio in such huge numbers?

So really at the border and it's all along the southwest border, there's been record record number of apprehensions and individuals that are processed for us that that's translated to an increase locally as well.

And so since April of 2021, we've talked about 190,000 migrants that have traveled through, but we've seen increases really since mid-March of this year.

And we are doing this because it's stressing all kinds of groups, even the airport.

Tell us what's happening at the airport are has.

So up to this point what has happened is migrants have arrived either at the airport to complete onward travel or the Greyhound bus station and that creates a lot of congestion downtown.

It's not necessarily the most conducive environment to provide services to migrants in terms of humanity.

And assistance.

And so through the opening of the new center, it allows us to consolidate those services and create alleviate some of that.

The people were sleeping overnight at the airport and there were other problems.

So what is happening at this new center at south of San Pedro or south of Northstar Mall in San Pedro?

Well, what is available there and how will it work.

So it'll be a multi partner effort with the city.

It'll allow us to do intake for everyone that's arriving in San Antonio in a coordinated way, shared that information among partners to coordinate services that'll also provide respite and connect people to overnight shelter.

If they need that, if there is going to be longer in San Antonio.

And there are other groups, Catholic Charities, and others that you work with, you don't want them staying overnight at the airport.

So hotel stays and things like that.

Yes, there are other hotels as well as overnight shelter locations we work closely with Catholic Charities and Corazon Ministries to provide those services to individuals that need that overnight shelter.

So there's a lot of private money coming in.

Charities but also the federal government is reimbursing the city.

Yes, we've been successful in requesting emergency food and shelter program funding, and that's funding that.

That will continue to sustain our operations in the near future.

And where do most of these people wind up in this area in Texas, across the country, with friends relatives.

So most of them are going and actually trying to connect with friends and relatives in other cities and other states in the country.

Not many are looking to settle in Texas.

And even fewer in San Antonio.

So it could be anywhere they have family or friends to continue that asylum process.

And some after they come across, they thought they would have had a place to stay and that falls through.

Are you working to connect them with people here in San Antonio who would be their sponsor, perhaps, or across the country?

So most of those individuals, they have a destination in mind that's not San Antonio, but Catholic Charities of San Antonio works with them to provide case management assistance to help them identify other resources in those communities so that they're not transitioning from here to homelessness.

Where on San Pedro is this and how big a site?

It's 7000 San Pedro Avenue and it's about 60,000 square feet.

And so it'll it'll be set up to really provide waiting for those individuals that maybe just have a brief layover and then also connect those that need case management, long term assistance to other resources.

And for people in that area if they see that there's a big area where immigrants are they don't need to be worried about this.

These are people who are here illegally.

They're getting assistance.

Absolutely.

And this replaces I guess or in addition to the decentralize locations, you have Travis Park and elsewhere.

Yes.

It provides a safer environment for the migrants as well as leaving alleviating a lot of the congestion we had at the airport and downtown at Travis Park.

Any other ways that people out there could help with what we're talking about?

Well, if individuals would like to donate, we do have San Antonio Food Bank and Catholic Charities that are accepting donations from the community, primarily new items.

So things that individuals, when they arrive, typically don't have a lot of personal belongings with them.

So new clothes, hygiene items, those types of things are extremely helpful if individuals would like to donate.

Well, thank you very much for coming in, Jessica told Lena.

And that new center is on.

San Pedro, assistant director, Department of Human Services.

Preciate you coming in?

Thank you.

We have the latest right now on ongoing problems at the Bear County jail and efforts to deal with them from the brand new president of the Bear County Deputy Sheriffs Association.

Lieutenant Ron took just took over in May.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Yes, sir.

My pleasure.

We're talking about, you know, jail overcrowding, mandatory overtime, those issues.

But you just came in and said they had another problem to deal with.

Another kind of ongoing problem.

The jail was without air conditioning yesterday for a number of hours.

Yes, a little heat.

Yes, sir.

What's that like for deputies to deal with as well as an overcrowded jail?

It's brutal.

I don't know how they do it.

I really don't.

We we try to go at least once a week and bring food from the outside, hit all the different shifts, try to keep them in the game.

Everything we can do.

But it doesn't matter how strong and how young you are or or how you look at things.

But when you're pushing 80 hour plus workweeks and sometimes 20 hours straight and then they want you to turn around and come back for your regular shift 3 hours later, it gets to a breaking point.

I actually we talk about this all the time or wondering when it's going to actually like almost implode, you know, for lack of a better word.

Now, this is something that county commissioners are aware of.

The sheriff, they've been trying to do something for years.

We're talking about overcrowding, recruiting, retention of sheriff's deputies because they all start in the jail.

It's hard to retain those.

Is there that is your focus right now since their contract with the Sheriffs Association that was wrapped up in January?

Yes, sir.

How close are you to getting some real change and what will it take, do you think, to get change at the jail?

The way I look at it is it's not the county's problem.

It's not the county judge.

It's not the commissioners, it's not the sheriff, it's not the union or the community.

It's all of our problem because we all have people that are there, whether they're they're working or they're being housed.

There that situation affects everybody.

The working conditions for the officers, the living conditions for the inmates, it's all we're all wrapped up.

Everybody has somebody that's been in that place, one.

With a focus on this for years.

Why is it still so bad, you think?

I'm not really sure.

You know, I'm new here at the union, but we're trying to address the problems one on one.

We've had a meeting with the sheriff.

We talked to the sheriff's administration daily.

And they're very we're kind of at a new phase.

You know, I call it the honeymoon phase, but the old union leadership is out the new ones are in.

And we actually sit down and talk to people each other like human beings.

And it's amazing what you can get done like that.

The sheriff is very receptive to you know, a lot of times they're not aware or something because it's such a big thing or he hasn't been made aware of it at that point.

So the phone call comes in and he usually takes care of it right there on the spot.

The commissioners have said definitely less antagonistic as in the past, because for one thing, you're done with the contract talks and you're agreed on that in five year contract.

Mm hmm.

How do you retain people?

How do you recruit people when they know there is a possibility of them having to work 20 hour shifts?

It's tough there, really.

I know I was doing some research myself, and you had the sheriff here about three years ago or so when you're talking about hiring us old guys.

And that was saying, well, now he's now they're looking at the young guys, you know, the young kids, you know, and I mean, he's trying everything he can but, you know, my thing is for the right amount of money, the right paying benefits, somebody will do that job.

The right you will get the right people if it's attractive enough We're trying to get more and more in there.

Their recruiting team is working double overtime.

They rounded everything you can, every event, trying to recruit people.

The training academy is working overtime, trying to get them trained and into the jail.

Some people, it's just not for them.

You know, I had a brother back in the nineties that came to work for the department.

I been there a few years and he was ex-military and he said, this is just not for me.

But the pay has gone up and you want to get that across to 15% over the next three years as part of this contract.

What is the average starting for?

Well.

We are still below our competitors in this area by quite a bit, and that's what I see us losing a lot to the city detention.

City has a detention facility that if you check their website, they pay a little bit more than the sheriff's office does.

And you go to Comal Atascosa any of these other agencies around here, they're, they're paying more.

So we have basically become the training ground, you know, for these other agencies because we train them, they go into the county jail and they get that experience that you just can't get anywhere else.

And then they get lured away to other agencies.

Even though we did get the I fairly well contract, I believe that it's just not enough for the conditions that the men and women are working under.

Right.

You started in the jail.

Yes.

In the early nineties.

Yes.

How was it changed and what do you tell people about what it's like if they want to?

They're thinking about working there.

Well, back then it was a new jail.

It was fully staffed.

There was no overtime.

I mean, I think in the four plus years I worked in the jail, I volunteered one time to come in.

And that was because they were in a little bit of a bind.

But that was the only time in those years that I worked there.

And now it's mandatory.

So there's a breaking point to where you just physically and mentally can't do that anymore.

You know, you're Tex, that has a really good campaign.

Drowsy driving is drunk driving.

That's what we're doing to our deputies in that jail right now.

You know, we're putting them in 1816, 18, even 20 hours working straight.

And then they're getting on the road going home.

And we've had a couple of them actually have accidents because of that.

Well, at the same time, you say that you want to get more people and recruit them and that people who do want to make a change, they can tell somebody about it, they can apply for a job, they just go to the county website.

Yes.

Or more.

Absolutely.

Well, good luck with all of that.

Lieutenant Ron took new president of the Bear County Deputy Sheriffs Association.

Thanks very much for coming.

All right.

Yes.

On Reporters Roundtable this week, the reporter who brought us the story over the weekend for the San Antonio Express-News, a very emotional archbishop here in San Antonio.

After the incidents of the immigrants and the tractor trailer where 53 have died after that, and also about what happened in your valley with the tragedy there in the mass shooting.

This is Ricardo Delgado Hill Country reporter.

That's your official beat for the San Antonio Express-News.

But this was, we thought, interesting because it really kind of gave an in-depth look at his emotional reaction and what he would like to see from everyone, from state leaders to local leaders and the average person on the street.

Tell us about this story and what struck you about it.

So mostly I think I wasn't expecting a leader in that position who covers such a broad base or is the representative for so many people in this city being the archbishop to be so outspoken and upfront about how he felt about the immigrant issues?

A lot of times when you represent so many people, you tend to dance around some of these things.

But he was very much upfront in his intentions about there needing to be integral immigration reform, as he preferred it to.

Wasn't as diplomatic as you might expect, or maybe he has been in the past year.

I interviewed him and he yeah, he does.

He described himself as an advocate.

What is he advocating for after this is we're talking about Archbishop Gustavo Garcia here, who's been here for a number of years.

What specifically after these incidents is he advocating for?

Well, he's advocating for seeing immigrants as humans mostly.

And then the word the word he specifically brought up or the term he brought up a lot was integral immigration reform, which he referred to kind of seeing the faces and in Spanish, which is kind of the connotation of the face and the actual soul of the person and seeing who this immigration reform is affecting because he he referred to them as both in his mass and in the interview I had with him as casualties, as kind of products, byproducts of a system that takes advantage of their labor.

So he very much wanted to focus on the people who are actually being exploited and make sure that they were actually hurt and not just byproducts of of American society.

Which he personally believes is built, you know, a lot on the back of immigrants.

And he was able to interview or meet with some of the survivors of this and not as an advocate, but just as a member of the clergy, and basically had to promise that he wasn't there for any political reason, I guess.

Yes.

Very much.

They led he visited them several hours afterwards and in the ensuing hours.

And he very much was let in and didn't ask any questions he made it clear that he never asked them what their experience was like, that those questions weren't on him to ask, that he wasn't.

Castigating, wasn't asking for their stories.

No, he that was that was for the investigators.

He wanted to be there kind of as a as a confidant and someone, like you said, as a member of the clergy to comfort them, to ease them, to make sure that they trust those around them the doctors.

Because he mentioned that a lot of them weren't going to be able to trust the people who were taking care of them, whether it be the police officers security.

And this came within just a few weeks after he had also spent time in the valley.

There was a mass there.

He got very emotional.

Tell us about that.

So he personally had been through a lot over the last six weeks in terms of tragedy.

And he he told me about a lot of the experience he's had in those marches, for example, observing the children and survivors of the tragedy in that mass who he said they looked vacant.

You know, just kind of numb to the feeling expectedly, unfortunately.

And then he told them that he managed to communicate them even with some basic sign language in both English and Spanish and be able to kind of sort the fact that that they love the ones that, you know, the people who were gone.

And I imagine it was a lot for him and kind of spurred on a lot of this anger and just observing or absorbing a lot of people's tragedy.

And second thought, it was interesting when you interviewed him, you interviewed a couple of times.

First in English and then you say you opened up more when you talked to him again in Spanish.

Absolutely.

And then in English, it was mostly I think it helps that it was also in English and over the phone.

But he mentioned the we don't treat immigrants as well.

He was just as much of an advocate as an English, but he was definitely more emotional in Spanish, I would say.

I think maybe it was perhaps a bit of a language barrier, or maybe it was even just the fact that it was in person.

But he was more more upfront, more expressive, more less restrained, definitely.

And he also indirectly referenced state leaders as failing.

People didn't say any names, but you could tell who he was talking about.

Absolutely.

I mean, he referenced them as my state leader and then the people surrounding him as using immigrants and these tragedies for personal gains.

There's not many people you could be referring to.

You're talking about the governor.

He was talking about the governor.

And it's interesting you can read all about this on the San Antonio Express-News or Express News dot com.

Your main takeaway is that he's going to be out there more, he think?

I think that my main takeaway is that he is telling the community that he's tired of these tragedies personally.

And that there does need to be something done, that he is no longer just a figure to console people, but an advocate to attempt to try some change.

Well, thank you for joining us.

Ricardo Delgado, San Antonio Express-News.

Catch that report and much more at Express News dot com.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again or previous shows any time.

Also catch the podcast at klrn.org and we'll see you next time.

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