Thaddeus Cleveland

Thaddeus C. Cleveland is the Sheriff for Terrell County, Texas. He was first appointed as Sheriff on May 17, 2022 and later elected into office. Sheriff Cleveland spent just over 26 years in the United States Border Patrol and the last 11 years of his career as the Patrol Agent in Charge of the Sanderson Border Patrol Station.

Sheriff Cleveland entered on duty with the U.S. Border Patrol on February 26, 1996, as a member of Class 300. His first duty assignment as a Border Patrol agent was at the Nogales Border Patrol Station in the Tucson Sector. Since his entry into the U.S. Border Patrol, Sheriff Cleveland served as a Border Patrol Agent at Sierra Blanca, Texas, a Senior Patrol Agent at Eagle Pass, Texas, a Supervisory Border Patrol Agent at Douglas, Arizona and Artesia, New Mexico. He has also served as a Field Operations Supervisor at Naco, Arizona and Alpine, Texas. Sheriff Cleveland served as an Assistant Chief in Washington, D.C. at the Office of Border Patrol as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner’s Office of Anti-Terrorism and Office of State, Local and Tribal Liaison.

Sheriff Cleveland served six months alongside the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin, Texas as the Border Patrol Staff Officer at the Texas Homeland Security Border Security Operations Center (BSOC). As the Staff Officer, he served as the single point of contact between the BSOC, the Border Patrol Sectors and the Office of Border Patrol in Washington, D.C.

Sheriff Cleveland also served as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Advisor to U.S. Army North (ARNORTH) in support of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) assistance to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the Humanitarian Crisis at the Southwest Border with Mexico. Sheriff Cleveland synchronized DHS’ requests for assistance to the Humanitarian Crisis and guided the operationalization of DoD plans to support CBP.

Prior to joining the Border Patrol, Sheriff Cleveland served in the U.S. Air Force.

Sheriff Cleveland served eight years as member of the Terrell County Independent School District Board of Trustees, four of which were as President of the Board. Sheriff Cleveland also served on the Terrell County Groundwater Conservation District as well as the Terrell County Appraisal District Board of Directors.

Sheriff Cleveland has successfully coordinated operations in Terrell County with Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Military Forces and the U.S. Border Patrol. In addition to this, Sheriff Cleveland has increased communications and support from neighboring counties also focusing on border security.