Berkeley County, West Virginia Sheriff Robert Blair is advocating for the Biden Administration to close the nation’s borders in an effort to bolster public safety. 

Blair said the “open borders” policies pursued by the current administration has undoubtedly led to increased criminality in Berkeley County and other areas of the country. 

“Most conspiracy cases can be tracked back to a supplier coming from Mexico or somewhere down the southern border,” Blair told Federal Newswire. “And, so that's still in play, that's where the fentanyl is coming across the border.” 

Blair said that by allowing 10 million illegal aliens to cross over the nation’s borders over the past few years has opened the country up to more criminality on a local level.  

“They're coming from all over the world to cross our border,” he said. “So that's kind of concerning to me. It should be concerning to everyone that we're allowing this to happen. And then we're left to whatever crimes they commit. It’s unfortunate, but we're the ones that will respond to it.” 

He said the federal government needs to get active and fast. 

“Above our local level, I think that's where the problems start. They should fix it, in my opinion and I guess the majority of Americans' opinion,” he said. 

Blair said while it remains obvious that local law enforcement will have to clean up after the federal government, he is still a strong proponent for the border to be secured. 

“Secure the border,” he said. “You're still going to have your smuggling across the border. But when you have an open border, like we have right now, it just compounds the problem. Common sense would tell you that. But it's a difficult thing for our officers to handle the extra crime that comes along with the drug trade, and the drug trade invites violent crime and it is just a kind of a snowball effect.” 

Blair pointed to the recent case of an MS-13 gang member wanted for murder who was picked up in a traffic stop by a Berkeley County deputy. 

Elmer Neftali Martinez-Escobar, a 31-year-old El Salvadoran national residing in the United States illegally, was arrested in Berkeley County. 

During a routine check, a deputy from the sheriff’s office discovered Martinez-Escobar's outstanding warrant in El Salvador for homicide and affiliation with MS-13, a notorious criminal gang. 

Martinez-Escobar was initially charged with possession of marijuana and subsequently detained at the Hill-Finkea Detention Center. 

Identity verification is still pending, but the alleged murderer is thought to have been released from jail from El Salvador before crossing the border. 

He is now being investigated for a potential string of crimes committed throughout his journey which ended him locked up in Berkeley County. 

“If this individual passed through our borders and made it all the way to the Canadian border, there's a tracking history,” Blair said. “We have to try to figure out…there are probably other crimes we may be able to connect this individual to.” 

Blair said the job of local law enforcement has become more difficult in the wake of such a large increase in the undocumented population and more cases like Martinez-Escobar are inevitable. 

“Given the nature of our borders these days we seem to deal with this a little bit more,” he said. 

Blair said current West Virginia law is inadequate to address human trafficking. He and other members of the law enforcement community advocated for laws that would reform human trafficking in the past legislative session. 

Blair and other members of the West Virginia Sheriff’s Association are still lobbying to be given more ability to intervene in instances of human trafficking. 

A bill that would have addressed the issue and defined the terms “illegal alien” and “human smuggling” passed the West Virginia House 83-13 but did not move in the Senate in 2024. 

Currently a human trafficking victim can only be assisted by law enforcement if they personally file a complaint. Otherwise, Blair said local law enforcement is forced into a catch and release game with known traffickers. 

Blair said when it comes to obtaining those in the country illegally there is very little local law enforcement can do due to federal policies against deportation. 

“We can pick somebody up and then the feds aren't going to take them,” he said. “They're not going to take them back. So we deal with the traffic stop. If they're illegal, we're just pretty much going to release them because they're probably not going to come get them.” 

He said many of those victimized by human traffickers are afraid due to the long reach of cartel-aligned traffickers to their home communities and the relatives they’ve left behind. 

“When you deal with the gang element they operate off of fear,” he said. ”So it's a very difficult situation, especially when it doesn't seem like (the Biden) administration is going to do anything about the border. There are probably crimes that we're dealing with we don't even realize that are connected.” 

Blair was appointed as Sheriff in January 2024. He is currently running for election to the office in November. He previously spent 25 years in the West Virginia State Police.