(This essay was written by Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland of Terrell County, Texas, who first published it on Facebook on August 13, 2026, and is republished by US Border News with permission of the author. Sheriff Cleveland served in the US Border Patrol for more than 25 years before becoming Sheriff of his county, which shares a border with Mexico).
I BELIEVE IN BORDER SECURITY. I ALSO BELIEVE IN THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE.
I am a veteran of the United States Air Force, a retired U.S. Border Patrol Agent, and now a County Sheriff. I have spent all of my adult life serving this country and my community.
I have enforced our immigration laws. I have arrested people who violated them. I have responded to 911 calls from migrants lost in the desert and desperate for help. And I have stood over the remains of human beings who never made it out.
Those experiences have taught me something that politics should never cause us to forget:
Enforcing the law and saving a human life are not opposing principles.
I am a Christian and an American. I was raised to believe that human life has value, even when the person in need is someone who broke our laws to enter this country.
I am also a Republican. I believe our nation has the absolute right and responsibility to secure its borders and enforce its immigration laws. I do not believe I have to choose between enforcing the law and having compassion for another human being.
Some people have called me a “sympathizer” because of that belief. A County Commissioner has even expressed the belief that we should not respond to 911 calls from illegal aliens.
I respectfully but fundamentally disagree.
If caring whether another human being lives or dies makes me a sympathizer, then I will wear that criticism without apology.
The young man in this photo was 18 years old. He was in this country illegally. When we found him, he needed help. When he realized he was going to live, he cried and hugged me and I hugged him back.
At that moment, I wasn’t interested in asking which political party would approve of helping him.
I was doing my job.
We can determine immigration status afterward. We can enforce the law afterward. We can hold people accountable under that law.
But you cannot bring someone back from the dead afterward.
When someone calls 911 from our county because their life is in danger, I refuse to believe the right answer is to first ask whether their immigration status makes their life worth saving.
A badge does not give us permission to decide which human lives have value. It gives us a responsibility to protect life, uphold the law, and serve with courage and integrity.
I have carried a badge long enough to know the difference between compassion and weakness.
Compassion is not weakness.
Humanity is not open borders.
Saving someone’s life is not an endorsement of illegal immigration.
And enforcing our laws does not require us to abandon our conscience.
I will continue to support a secure border.
I will continue to support enforcement of our immigration laws.
And as long as I have the privilege of serving as Sheriff, when a human being in our county calls 911 and their life is in danger, we will answer that call.
Legal or illegal. Republican or Democrat. American or foreign-born. A human life is still a human life.
I have served my country in the United States Air Force, served on its border as a Border Patrol Agent, and now serve my community as Sheriff. Each uniform carried a different responsibility, but the principles of duty, service, and integrity have never changed.
That is not contrary to my Christian faith.
That is not contrary to my oath.
That is not contrary to being a Republican.
And that is not contrary to being an American.
It is precisely why I serve.
