Tag Archive for: Rio Grande Valley

Inside JD Vance’s Tone-Setting Trip To The Southern Border

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EAGLE PASS, Texas – As the vice president’s motorcade zipped by a long stretch of border wall Tuesday, the barrier quickly turned from solid structure to a patchwork of old train cars and razor wire.

The motorcade turned into Shelby Park, an area Gov. Greg Abbott seized so officials could put up razor wire and barriers to help deter crossings coming from the Rio Grande. Standing in the middle of the park at a podium, the location quickly became symbolic of how the administration is addressing the border crisis.

“I think the president’s hope is that by the end of the term, we build the entire border wall. And, of course, that’s the physical structure, the border wall itself,” the vice president said in response to the Daily Caller’s question about how much of the border needs to be walled off before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Just about six weeks into the administration, Vance was at the border and he didn’t go alone. Vance spent the entire day trip with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They did an aerial tour of the American side of the border in a Black Hawk, visited border facilities and met with lawmakers, border patrol agents and other leaders.

At Eagle Pass, Texas, which was once a hub of illegal immigrants crossing the border, he touted the administration’s progress at mitigating the migration crisis.

“I will say that the most heartening message that I take away from my visit here at the Texas border is the number of border patrol agents who have come up to me and said, ‘thank you,’” Vance told reporters.

“Or said, ‘Because of this, we’ve cut the number of border crossings from 1,500 a day to 30 a day.’ Or the people who have come up and said, ‘we’ve seen a reduction of 85% of the number of people who are dying at the American southern border,’ and every single day that we continue to keep this border safe, that means less migrant crime, that means less fentanyl coming into our communities,” Vance continued at his press conference.

About five months earlier, Vance’s predecessor stopped at the southern border while making a run for the White House. Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign planned a stop to visit a section of the border in Douglas, Arizona, where she gave remarks and called for a solution to the border crisis. It was her first trip to a section of the southern border in three years, after Biden gave her the job of addressing the “root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.” 

At the time, an analysis by The New York Times found that under the Biden administration, the level of net migration into the country was the largest in the country’s history. The 2024 U.S. fiscal year was the second worst in history for illegal immigration.

Since taking office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders, like a national emergency declaration allowing him to divert more military resources to the U.S.-Mexico border and another to resume border wall construction. Other executive orders included a designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a pause on refugee admissions and an end to birthright citizenship for individuals born on U.S. soil to illegal migrant parents.

There were 101,790 migrant encounters at the southern border in September, the final month of fiscal year 2024, according to data released Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The Trump administration has touted figures trying to show how its actions in roughly the first month have dramatically impacted the border crisis. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed that the administration marked the lowest single-day apprehension number in over 15 years, with 200 migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border on Feb. 22. Trump also announced that during his first few weeks in office there were 8,326 migrant apprehensions at the border.

To build on this, Vance repeatedly referenced a line from Trump’s joint congressional address the night before.

“As you saw, the president said yesterday, I think it’s maybe the most important part of his speech, is that we didn’t need new laws to secure the border. We needed a new president, and thank God we have that,” Vance said to a group of Texas and border patrol leaders Wednesday.

“I’ve heard already from a number of the folks that I’ve talked to in border patrol, that all we needed to do was empower these guys to do their job,” he continued.

The trip was not just about celebrating. After taking an aerial tour of the border, the trio of administration officials visited Eagle Pass Border Patrol Station to participate in a roundtable with a variety of leaders, including Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the mayor of Eagle Pass, the chief of Border Patrol and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd, to discuss further how they could get the border under control.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Vance acknowledged that the administration had more work to do.

“First of all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we have seen pretty significant decreases in deportations and apprehensions and arrests. But we have to remember that President Biden gutted the entire immigration enforcement regime of this country. We are trying to rebuild so that we actually empower people to enforce the immigration laws,” the vice president told reporters.

He also hinted that Trump has more announcements coming on how the administration will secure the southern border, a topic that is sometimes overlooked as the media focuses on Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. “I don’t want to get ahead of any public announcements, but one of the ways that we wanted to make sure that we’re enforcing our border is that we make it easier for people who are here illegally to go back home of their own accord,” Vance explained.

“We don’t want to have to go around and arrest every person, but we will enforce the American people’s immigration laws if you’re here illegally, the message from our administration is, you should go back home,” Vance added. “If you want to come to the United States, apply through the proper channels, that’s an important thing that we’re doing.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House reporter. Follow Reagan on Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Lifelong Hispanic Democrats Are Tired Of The Party’s Rule. Now, They’re Striving To Make History

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Many Hispanic voters in Texas’ historically blue Rio Grande Valley are fed up with Democratic Party rule and are looking to flip the area red Tuesday, locals told the Daily Caller.

The Valley, which borders northern Mexico and the Rio Grande River, is largely Hispanic. Many voters in the area are lifelong Democrats. Skyrocketing costs in one of the country’s poorest areas, a growing dissatisfaction with the Democratic party’s stance on culture war issues and a more energetic GOP, however, are all factors that may be pushing them across the aisle.

The five main counties that compose the Rio Grande Valley — Starr, Hidalgo, Willacy, Zapata and Cameron — all went heavily blue for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

But in 2020, Trump gained major ground in all five counties, even winning Zapata, the first time the county went red in 100 years, Zapata County Republican Chair Jennifer Thatcher told the Daily Caller.

“What they want is change,” Thatcher said of Zapata County voters. “Everybody’s tired of the same thing, you know, same empty promises and nothing getting done.”

In 2016, Clinton defeated Trump in Zapata, which is 94 percent Hispanic, with 65 percent of the vote to Trump’s 32 percent. But in 2020, Trump edged Biden 53-47, picking up 1,000 voters in the 12,000 person county.

That trend played out across the Rio Grande Valley. Trump picked up 69,493 votes across the five Valley counties from 2016 to 2020. Local Republicans believe he could make even bigger gains this time around.

“His support is just really remarkable,” Toni Trevino, Starr County’s Republican Chair, told the Daily Caller. It’s “off the charts, more so than in ‘16 and ‘20.”

While some voters in the border counties cited Trump’s immigration policies, it’s the economy and cost of living that seems to be by far the biggest reason for the shift.

“Things are getting very expensive,” Jorge Bazan, a Starr County voter who described himself as a “lifelong Democrat,” told the Caller. “To go to a restaurant, it’s expensive. Expensive groceries.”

Bazan, who works for a water company, says a foot of pipe used to cost his company $8 in 2020. Now, he says, it costs $21.

This time, he says he’s voting for Trump. “The economy was better when he was in office.”

Many Starr County Democrats voted blue for their local candidates but revealed to Trevino that they also voted for Trump, she told the Caller.

Another local organizer, Col. Ross Barrera, heard the same thing.

“A lot of the people, they were hinting to me, ‘Mr. Barrera, we’re voting Democrat locally, but at the national level, Trump.’ These are people who barely speak English. They’re first generation Mexican-Americans,” he told the Caller.

Former Democrats told Barrera, Thatcher and Trevino they were voting Trump because they’re hurting financially.

Voters often mention prices for groceries and other staples. “The main issue for these people is, of course, bringing money home” Barrera said.

The Rio Grande valley is one of the poorest areas in the U.S. The area has a 27 percent family poverty rate, according to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. That number is well over double the national rate of 11.5 percent.

“To have there be such a tangible difference in the cost of living and in how much it costs us to feed and clothe our family and at the same time to have less job opportunities — or if we do have job opportunities, they’re lower-paying jobs — that is what I mean. People here, they saw the difference,” Trevino told the Caller.

“They saw the four years of Donald Trump, when their lives were better, and then they’ve seen the last four years when their lives have been not as good for their family.”

Despite the hardships, local Hispanic voters are not looking for handouts, Barrera said.

“The reason they come to America, not because they want abortions. They come because of jobs. These people, they want to work. They don’t want a giveaway. But the Democrats [say], “Oh, we’ll give you this. We’ll give you that. No, no, no, give me a job,” Barrera said.

While the economy appears to be the key catalyst in the valley’s rightward shift, other issues on the Democrat platform like the funding of foreign wars, border security, sex-changes for children and abortion (the area is heavily Catholic) are contributing to the party exodus as well.

For instance, Bazan mentioned abortion as a key issue for his rejection of Democrats, and county officials heard similar stories from others.

Still, the economy appears to be the main reason these voters are walking away.

“The economy, illegal immigration, inflation and oil, are the four key issues for voters in Starr County,” Barrera told the Caller. “Notice, I didn’t say anything about the transgender issue. Nothing about abortion. These are the issues that hit people hard. People want to work. They don’t want [the Democratic Party’s] ways.”

Flores illustrated her constituents’ opposition to Democrats by outlining their party platform.

“When the government leaves our border wide open, allowing 13,099 known murderers and 15,811 known [convicted sex offenders] into our country, people want a change. When the government advances legislation using tax dollars to pay for sex-changes for children, people want a change. When groceries become unaffordable and quality of life drops dramatically, people want a change. When we have crisis after crisis in our communities being ignored by our government while they’re sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas, people want a change.”

The region has been reliably blue for decades. In 2020, The New York Times listed Texas as a toss-up, claiming Joe Biden could be the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, citing “the arrival of a formidable multiracial Democratic coalition in the country’s largest red state.”

The outlet specifically cited the Hispanic vote and the Valley’s local Democratic candidates, who often run unopposed. That lack of opposition led to what former Republican Texas Rep. Mayra Flores called “single-party rule.”

“So many voters believe the only election of consequence is the primary election. Most voters, even those with conservative beliefs, vote in the Democrat primaries so they can have a say in who their locally-elected officials are,” Flores told the Caller. “It’s only recent that Republicans have been considered competitive in this area, and the investment in campaigning and outreach has been a priority.”

In the past it was frowned upon socially to not vote for Democrats, Barrera told the Caller.

“You couldn’t say you were a Republican because they would paint you as, ‘Oh, you want to be white. Oh, you wanna be rich. You’re in the wrong party.’” Barrera said.

But the tide is evidently turning.

In Barrera’s Starr County, Trump went from earning 19 percent of the vote in 2016 to 47 percent in 2020, narrowly losing to Biden despite picking up over 6,000 votes. Biden received 123 less votes in 2020 than Clinton did in 2016.

“I think it is almost certain that he will over-perform from 2020, and it is entirely possible that he sweeps the entire Rio Grande Valley,” Flores told the Caller.

The trend is playing out nationally too, as Trump is outperforming Kamala Harris with Hispanic male voters, according to an October AP/NORC poll.

Harris has struggled with Hispanic voters compared to her Democratic predecessors.

Hillary Clinton carried the Hispanic vote by 40 points and Biden did so by around 30. Harris led Trump by 12 points with registered Hispanic voters, according to an Economist/YouGov poll from late October.

Trevino and other party officials cited an uptick in the intensity and cohesion of their organizing efforts as part of why Trump has made these strides.

The area, which has one of the lowest turnout rates in the country, has experienced rapid growth in turnout in the last two presidential elections.

“Almost 12 percent of the early votes cast so far this year are from voters who have not voted in the last four elections,” Flores said. “The enthusiasm is high, but, at least in South Texas, seems to be one-sided.”

“Latino voters have been abandoned by the Democratic party. After decades of one-party rule, being taken for granted, and only seeing things get worse, they want a change.”

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Let the Little Children Come Unto Me: What is Behind the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border?

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This morning on Fox and Friends I watched  a segment  with Texas Governor, Rick Perry.  He  drew  attention to the spike in Central American, Syrian and other Middle Eastern illegal immigrants seeking asylum . The Washington Times quoted as  saying:

That the Obama administration has dropped the ball on border security and must improve diplomatic relations with Central American nations to stem the surge of illegal immigrants trying to cross the nation’s southern border.

This president is totally and absolutely either inept, or making some decisions that are not in the interest of American citizens, particularly from the public safety standpoint.

The federal government must step up because Texas does not have the money or manpower to protect its 1,200 mile southern border.

Then Perry went on to express an abiding concern about illegal immigrants harboring possible terrorist threats:

There are a record number of illegal immigrants that are being apprehended at the border that come from countries that are home to groups that pose a threat to the United States.

These people are coming from states like Syria that have substantial connections back to terrorist regimes and terrorist operations. It is a huge problem and a great concern.

Last week Fox Latino there was a report on radioactive materials in Mexico stolen by armed gun men at  the National Construction Lab. They seized Cesium 37 and  americium-beryllium  that could be used for  creation of  a terrorist device. Last December some thieves in Mexico stole a vehicle with deadly Cobalt 60 virtually assuring their demise from radiation sickness.  Then we recall the 2011 episode involving  a Mexican drug cartel,  Iran’s Qud Force working with an Iranian American plotting to kill the Saudi Ambassador to Washington.  The Iranian American was convicted in June 2013 to 25 years for his role in the assassination plot.

Governor Perry’s comments come in the face of a veritable onslaught of unaccompanied alien minors and women and small children from Central America swarming our borders.  There are daily reports news stories about youngsters being warehoused, and given medical treatment.  They are given bus tickets to stay with alleged relatives on the promise to show up for a Immigration court  to hear  their petition for asylum.  They are threatened with physical harm by the rampant drug related murders in Central American countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The Wall Street Journal investigated the concerns expressed by Texas Governor  Perry in an article yesterday, “Migrant Surge Jams Border”.

Frustration is mounting along the Texas border as federal officials struggle to check a surge of Central Americans illegally crossing into the state—an influx critics say is being aggravated because the Obama administration is allowing more migrants, primarily women traveling with children, to be released into the U.S. pending deportation proceedings.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hasn’t disclosed statistics on how many immigrants it has released. But the agency has confirmed that due to a shortage of detention space in Texas, it has shipped hundreds of immigrants recently apprehended in Texas to Arizona for processing, and subsequently dropped some off at bus stations there, allowing them to travel to locations around the country until they can be deported.

Texas US Democrat Congressman Henry Cuellar  was cited in the WSJ report  pointed  to the  11,000 illegals who were effectively let go in the Rio Grande Valley and other border locations.  The numbers are staggering.  The DHS has stepped up deportations from 235,093  last fiscal year, up from 151,893 four years earlier.

The major concern are those unaccompanied alien minors as the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement calls them.  The number doubled over the previous fiscal year to more than 47,017 and federal officials expect that to double to in excess of 90,000.  Last Tuesday, the Senate Appropriation Committee authorized  $2 Billion to address the problem,  a billion more than the Obama Administration requested.  The Federal government has an obligation to handle unaccompanied minors separately.

The reality is the current surge is literally swamping the Immigration Courts system used to handle asylum and deportation matters.  Currently the backlog exceeds 350,000 pending cases.

Watch this CNN news video on the crisis in unaccompanied minors illegal immigrants on the Southern border:

The Refugee Act of 1980 was enacted to comply with international standards for handling humanitarian refugees which meant complying with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees program.  The Act has resulting in over 3 million refugees  being settled in the US,  granting them temporary cash benefits, Medicaid eligibility and a Green Card leading to US citizenship in five years. The refugee resettlement program has been fraught with fraud especially among Somali and other African refugees. It has allowed asylum for Iraqi terrorists in Kentucky  and on April 15, 2013, the refugee  Tsarneav Brothers  from Dagestan committed the Boston Marathon Massacre. Then there are Somali émigrés who  returned to their country to fight and die for Al Shebaab, an Al Qaeda affiliate.  The current crisis in the Middle East looms large on the refugee program with the prospect of more than 20,000 Syrian refugee eligible for settlement here.

The Refugee Act is overdue for an overhaul that a number of critics have suggested requires Congressionally sponsored Government Accountability Office audits and  special investigative hearings. The estimated administrative cost of the Refugee Resettlement program exceeds $2 billion annually, not counting the recent Senate Appropriations aimed at dealing with the influx unaccompanied alien minors.  Add to that state welfare and Medicaid costs and some immigration experts maintain that the annual costs could well exceed $10 to 12 billion annually.

The late Sen. Ted Kennedy was a sponsor of the 1980 Refugee Act.  The co-sponsor of that was then Sen. Joe Biden. Vice President Biden  was on  a trip  this week to Central American countries endeavoring to stem the tide. As the WSJ article noted one Administration official said “that they were looking at ways to “enhance”  their support to these Central American countries.   Further they are urging parents to ‘think twice’ about sending children on such a dangerous journey that doesn’t result in long-term residency in the U.S.”

So who is fomenting the current humanitarian crisis on our southern border? Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch suggested in a recent article that may be the same religious groups that were behind the so-called Sanctuary Movement of the 1980’s in the Southwestern US that sent illegals across the country, “Invasion on the border: religious groups telling them to come!”

Corcoran cites a Border Patrol officer reflecting the comments of unaccompanied alien minors as to who told them to come here:

Cueto (Art Del Cueto, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tucson) says when he asked a group of children about their motivation, they spoke of the “announcer on the radio” who encouraged them to head for the United States. Cueto says Central American radio, television, other media, and religious groups have all encouraged people to move north to the United States.

Who are those religious groups suggesting that these Central American children come here? The beneficiaries of the recent Senate emergency appropriation to take care of these children, Voluntary Agencies authorized by the federal Refugee Resettlement programs. They are:

This surge is indicative of the Cloward Piven strategy espoused by two Columbia University social work theorists in the 1960’s. Their thesis was swamping the system would result in a crisis and force transformation to benefit the least able among us.  Thus, the voluntary agencies in the Refugee Resettlement community are simply following the Parable of Matthew 14:19 : Let the little children come unto me. Jim Holt of the Gateway Pundit blog tells the whole story with this headline, “Obama’s Cloward Piven Strategy floods Southern US with Illegal Immigrant Children.

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EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.