Ap Exclusive: 'high Threat' Texas Border Busts Aren't Always

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Drivers in Texas busted for drunken driving, not paying child support or low-level drug offenses are among thousands of "high-threat" criminal arrests being counted as part of a nearly $1 billion mission to secure the border with Mexico, an Associated Press analysis has found. Having once claimed that conventional crime data doesn't fully capture the dangers to public safety and homeland security, the Texas Department of Public Safety classified more than 1,800 offenders arrested near the border by highway troopers in 2015 as "high threat criminals." The AP used open records laws to obtain a list of 2015 Texas Highway Patrol arrests classified as "high threat" in a broad 60-county area that the DPS has defined as the border region, then reviewed online court and jail records for cases in Hidalgo and El Paso counties, which had the most such arrests. A threat overview published by DPS in 2013 defined high-threat criminals as "individuals whose criminal activity poses a serious public safety or homeland security threat." Patrick senior adviser Sherry Sylvester said the lieutenant governor had been "unintentionally unclear," but then herself falsely described the arrests as "criminal illegal aliens" who she said pose a "serious threat to public safety in Texas."

Topics:  drivers   mexico   associated press   public safety   the ap   highway patrol   dps   hidalgo   el paso   patrick   sherry sylvester   texas   ap   a   border   records   security   defined   
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