Image courtesy of Greene Co Republican Party

A retired US border patrol officer is coming to Jefferson tomorrow to talk about his experiences with trafficking, exploiting and missing migrant children.

J.J. Carrell grew up with a father who served as a Secret Service agent for seven different US Presidents, and Carrell got his law enforcement start with the border patrol in the 1990s and stayed with the same career for 24 years. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that in his first ten years he was a journeyman agent and supervisor along the Tijuana border and also did several rotations patrolling the borders of California and Arizona with Mexico. He talks about one of the largest task forces he commanded with 60 people that included border patrol, field operation officers and National Guard before retiring as a deputy agent in charge.

“Our responsibility was patrolling the Pacific coastline from San Diego to Santa Barbara and we were taking down large human smuggling maritime events, and then it became all hard narcotic maritime events from the Sinaloa Cartel. And one of my guys testified to secure Joaquin Guzman’s life imprisonment.”

Carrell will go over the different changes over his tenure of migrant children and how they have been treated and used for individuals like drug cartels to cross the US southern border illegally. The Greene County Republican Party is sponsoring the event, and the organization says the event is for everyone as the topic is meant to show all sides of the issue. The event is tomorrow at the Wild Rose Casino Greene Room Events Center with doors opening at 5:30pm. Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased via email at gciowagop@gmail.com or by calling 515-370-2024.