Brooks County dispatchers often receive calls from illegal immigrants who are lost in brush and desperately seeking help. BROOKS COUNTY, Texas – Illegal immigrants overcome by the South Texas heat often call Brooks County 911, triggering an all-out search by sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Border Patrol. We’re not going to let them die out here,” said Rey Rodriguez, Brooks County sheriff. “Yes, yes,” he said. “Vargas, Vargas,” Angel kept repeating a name scrawled on a fence post.

FALFURRIAS, Texas – Between bailouts during pursuits and searching the rugged brush country for dead or dying illegal immigrants, Brooks County Sheriff Rey Rodriguez said his department is “having a rough time.”Rodriguez said it's not just his small department, but also state and federal law enforcement agencies in Brooks County -- a deep South Texas county of about 7,000 people. Rodriguez said smugglers coming up from the border often travel the back roads to bypass the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints, located on U.S. Highway 281, south of Falfurrias. Yet because Brooks is not considered a border county, the sheriff said state and federal funding is harder to come by for his overworked and understaffed department. Rodriguez said the smugglers escaped, leaving half a dozen illegal immigrants to be rescued and their cargo up in the smoke. For that reason, Daniel Davila, Brooks County's lone investigator, said the small department is not backing down.