Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, who has been steadily creeping onto the national political scene over the past two years, scored a prime speaking gig at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday night.
In a roughly two-minute minute speech, Salazar described how a lack of federal action on immigration reform regularly causes his officers to respond to harrowing scenes involving trafficked migrants in Bexar County — roughly 150 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Such a scenario played out just last June, when officials found 26 human smuggling victims in “blazing hot” conditions in a shack in South Bexar County.
“They pack migrants into 18-wheelers like cattle, 50, 100 at a time, then they seal the doors,” Salazar said of the traffickers. “That’s when the 911 calls come. We hear them, desperate, terrified, gasping for air. Sometimes we get there in time. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can’t.”
Salazar’s remarks during primetime on day three of the party’s convention came as somewhat of a surprise, after he wasn’t listed among the other bigger-name Texas leaders who were expected to speak.
But the Democrat gained the attention of both national political leaders last fall when he announced plans to investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a GOP presidential hopeful at the time — for his role in a political stunt transporting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
On Wednesday, Salazar turned his attention to former President Donald Trump, who he said made law enforcement’s job harder this year by telling GOP lawmakers not to support a bipartisan border security bill, because it would give Democrats a win.
“When Donald Trump comes down to Texas, stands next to officers in uniforms just like mine, he’s not there to help us,” Salazar told the a crowd of thousands of delegates from across the nation packing Chicago’s United Center Stadium and a broadcast and online audience that reached 57 million-plus on night one.
“Don’t think that, not for a second. He is a self-serving man,” he added.
Salazar also took the opportunity to promote Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ credibility on border security — an issue that was dogging President Joe Biden with both Republicans and Democrats earlier this year.
Salazar said Harris “has been fighting border crime for years” and in her role as a prosecutor, worked to put traffickers in jail.
“The border sheriffs that I know… we’re like Kamala,” he said. “We protect and serve, we enforce the law, we show compassion and we fight like hell to protect our border.”
