WATCH: Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Details Illegal Immigration Impacting Residents on the Space Coast

Message from Sheriff Wayne Ivey

ABOVE VIDEO: Live Case Update With Sheriff Ivey Regarding Investigation & Arrest Of People In Our Country Illegally

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – This evening, I want to give everyone an update on a recent case our Ag Marine Unit made as it provides a number of perfect examples as to why we need to secure our nation’s borders and what happens when we don’t.

While the specific case and arrest that were made this past Friday by deputies Brian Jones and Rob Raule of our Ag Marine Unit may not seem like a big deal to some, it is what this case actually revealed about the subjects who were arrested and the fact that they are in our country illegally, that drives me absolutely insane and will most likely take you off as well.

You see what this theft case revealed is that there were four subjects taken into custody here in Brevard County that not only shouldn’t be in Brevard County stealing people’s property, they shouldn’t even be in our country for that matter.

There are two others here that are not U.S. citizens who came into our country and are now here breaking the law while also applying for citizenship.

Arrested Multiple Times

Of those that are here illegally, some of them have been arrested multiple times, some of them have been deported in the and came back illegally again into our country, and some of them can’t be deported because, get this, they have a pending court date for immigration status.

What a bunch of crap. Plain and simple, they violated our nation’s immigration laws to get here in the first place, and then they’re out there committing crimes and victimizing our citizens while trying to gain citizenship themselves.

I’ll get back to that in a minute, but let’s first talk about the case that was initially a cooperative effort between our agency and Florida Wildlife Commission and involved the an illegal theft of approximately $7,000 worth of palmetto berries from a citizen’s property, where they were not only trespassing to steal, but also had fake documents saying they had permission to be there.

The case started this past Friday when an FWC officer was driving down I-95 in the Southern end of Brevard and observed a U-haul box truck off the roadway in the woods on the other side of the fence line.

Knowing that Deputy Brian Jones was nearby in the area, the information was relayed to Brian so he could further investigate.

Once at the area, Brian did a great job of walking into the wooded area so he could sneak up on the U-Haul, and four subjects who were loading thousands of pounds of palmetto berries into the truck.

False Documents, Wanted Felons

As Brian was taking the four subjects into custody, a fifth subject was observed and was taken into custody as well. Brian was able to have them contact their boss by telephone, who arrived at the scene a short time later and identified herself as Elise Yepes.

Yepes, who is no stranger to trouble herself with multiple prior arrests, including some felony charges, subsequently produced various documents in an effort to justify the activities of the subjects that Brian and now Ag Marine Deputy Rob Rauh have in custody.

Of course, no surprise, the documents, which included permits and licensing were not valid, and actually were not even for the piece of property where the berries were being stolen.

Yepes alleged that she had permission from the owner, but further investigation revealed that she not only did not have permission to be on the property, she didn’t even know who the owner was. Even more intriguing, during a search of the Yepes’ vehicle, we found evidence of three more subjects that should have been with the group, but instead refused to come out of the woods and fled.

One of those subjects was identified as Jashid Rachid, who is actually on felony probation for identity theft out of La Belle, Florida.

Eight Subjects Arrested

As a result of the investigation, our team members seized all of the stolen berries which weighed just over 9,000 pounds and were determined to have a value of approximately $7,300.

A 2015 Ford Explorer driven by Yepes and used in the commission of a felony, and a pull trailer that was also used in the commission of the criminal activity, were seized as well. In total, eight subjects were arrested and taken to the Brevard County Jail, where they were held on a total bond of $2,500 each for harvesting palmetto berries without a permit.

In addition to the above charge, Elias Herrera was also charged with an on-site violation of probation for possession of cocaine out of Collier County and was being held in our jail with no bond.

Oh, and of the subjects that were arrested and were here illegally, two of them had been previously deported out of our country, which means they came here illegally and were kicked out of the country, and now, they’re back here illegally again, violating yet more laws.

The best part for me is that when we ask why this person can’t be deported or why is this person still in our country after committing multiple crimes, we’re told that unless they commit a violent felony, they’re not going to be deported no matter how many nonviolent crimes they have committed.

Well, isn’t that just dandy? Basically, I guess what we’re saying is you have to wait to deport someone until they kill or injure someone during the commission of a violent felony.

Apparently, the concept is to give those that enter our country illegally every opportunity we can to be overachievers in the crime game so they can commit a violent crime before we deport them for being a criminal in the first place.

WATCH: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey traveled to Arizona to convey the urgent need to secure our country’s southern border. “In Florida, we could sit back and say, well, we’ll fight this in our backyard. But instead, we say let’s fight it on the front. Let’s join together, let’s be united,” said Sheriff Ivey.

Illegal Aliens Filter into Every Community in America

I’ve personally been out of the border on multiple occasions, and on each occasion, I see the massive influx of illegals flooding our country and the impact it’s having. I tell people all the time that illegal immigration doesn’t stop at the border. It filters into every community in our country. Here it is impacting our own community that sits over 1,300 miles away.

Folks, while our team did a great job on this case, when are we as a nation going to say we’ve had enough of this crap with people illegally crossing our borders and gaining entry into our country so they can commit more crimes? Please understand, This is not a failure on our partners at the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Border Patrol, or even Department of Homeland Security.

This is a complete and total failure on Washington, DC for not allowing the laws of our great nation to be enforced. It doesn’t take a as a rocket scientist to figure out that every single day our borders are left wide open for those to cross illegally is yet another day that puts our citizens and their property at risk.

Every day that our borders are open for illegals to cross is another day we are opening us up to more illegal activity such as the flood of fentanyl that is crossing the border, human trafficking, and yes, even theft of our citizens’ property that they worked hard to have.

How many more U.S. citizens have to be victimized before we stop the insanity of allowing people to enter our country illegally with no consequences for their actions? How many more angel families need to lose a loved one to the actions of those here illegally? And how many more fentanyl deaths have to happen before we get serious about what is impacting our country in the absolute worst way?

How about this? Why don’t you allow our Customs and Border Patrol agents to secure the damn border like our laws allow, or get the hell out of the way, and I’ll do it with the help of sheriffs from across the country who actually believe in enforcing the law and who are sick and tired of this crap.

– Sheriff Wayne Ivey

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