Photo: CBS 12
More details on a story that is now getting national attention. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw this week railed against the federal government for how the southern border is being managed.
Bradshaw tells Brian Mudd that his agency has a good handle on our local border, which is the ocean, and the feds need to do the same thing on the southern border.
"Our goal is to stop the people that are trying to get in here before they touch the sand, before they put a foot here. Because if I stop them out there and I give them back to the Coast Guard or the Navy, their mandated to take them back where they came from."
The sheriff says the three illegal immigrants from Guatemala who are accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a woman near Lake Worth Beach likely came into this country through the border with Mexico.
Asked whether there is any action the public can take in the wake of Monday's violent incident, he said just to be vigilant and aware of your surroundings.
"People don't need to be afraid. I mean, we've got a very good handle on what's going on. And if you don't put yourselves in positions where bad guys gather, in areas that we know are riddled with crime and drug dealing and stuff like that, I don't think there's an issue for people."
The suspects in this week's attack are in custody, but Bradshaw says they should've never been in this country. He says that, in addition to the potential for violent crimes, illegal immigrants bring something else across the southern border.
"The vast majority of them that we come across are sick. They have tuberculosis, they've got AIDS, they've got COVID. Here we are trying to get our community back on its feet, yet we've got people trying to get in here that are seriously sick because they're coming from places that have poor medical attention."
We've learned that one of the suspects, Andres Felipe Morales, was pulled over in Palm Springs in January and cited for driving without a license.
He was allowed by prosecutors to pay a hundred dollars and take a diversion program to avoid charges...but was never referred to federal authorities. The sheriff says there have been some changes from on high when it comes to traffic stops and immigration status.
"If you stopped an illegal, they used to be brought to the County Jail and we'd call ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), we had an ICE agent in the jail and they would take them down to Miami, to Krome (ICE processing center). Under the present administration at the federal government, that doesn't happen anymore. They've limited ICE's ability to do anything. That's part of the problem."