A Texas Town Wanted Tougher Border Security. Now It’s Having Regrets.

from New York Times I'm Michael borro. this is the. [Music]. daily when the governor of Texas. announced an unprecedented plan to use. local law enforcement to stop the flow. of migrants across the US Mexico border. few communities were more receptive than. the city of Eagle Pass where residents. had become fed up with the federal. government's approach.

today 2 years later my colleagues. National correspondent Edgar sandal and. daily producer Nina Feldman traveled to. Eagle Pass to find out why the people. who once welcomed the plan are now. turning against. [Music]. [Applause]. it it's Thursday October 19th.

[Music]. Edgar tell us about this trip that you. just took to the US Mexico border so a. few weeks ago I traveled to the Town of. Eagle Pass Texas with a producer from. the daily Nina Felman and we're going to. to ride towards the International. Bridge and the thing to nobody go past. is this right on the Rio Grande um. directly across from the town of beas. neas Mexico.

not un likee the town where I went to. high school and college uh in Mallen. Texas so you can just cross that bridge. and you're Mexico in a few. minutes and the back and it's really one. town divided by the river the re Grande. right so there are about 30,000. residents a lot of them live on one side. and work on the other side and as a. Border Town um in Eco pass they have. always been used to Illegal Crossings. but it's also become one of the front. lines of something else you know this. Grand experiment by the Texas government.

to tackle the issue of illegal Crossings. so we have. arrived and to understand that. experiment I needed to talk to people. who had personal experiences with it. hell how are you people like magali with. Reena hi magali to meet you so magali's. family has been in Eagle Path for three. generations she and her husband are. middle age and own this big beautiful. peon farm right by the real Grandy my. husband was looking for a place to build.

our retirement home and we had lots of. free time to drive around town and and. we found this Orchard and we fell in. love with it and mind you the urbas are. not Farmers by training she was a. teacher and he work in the oil industry. and what Drew you guys to the to the. farm the land The Greenery the trees the. river the river yeah and once they. bought it they really fell in love with. the. place and on this Farm Edgar what what. is this couple's relationship to the US.

Mexico border and to migrants you know. like a lot of people who live on the. border they're used to it and I've seen. it my entire life you would see maybe. five six single men young men coming. across you used to seeing clusters of. migrants being apprehended by the border. patrol every time they drive to the. grocery store or to the pharmacy so. periodic Crossings are effect of life in. fact Al was so used to it that she used.

to put water in her property for. migrants that were crossing that she saw. them just like thirsty and looking for. help it just made more sense you're. going to let them in give them water but. the Reas were totally unprepared for. what happened in. [Music]. 2021 turning back to the Border crisis. now the number of unaccompanied migrant. children at the southern border is also. on the rise over 15,000 unaccompanied. minor 's now in US custody 5,000 of them.

with border patrol immigration. authorities still struggling to find. surely after Biden took office migrants. started to rush the border the US is on. track to see the highest number of. illegal border crossers in 20 years and. it didn't take long for people living in. towns like Eagle to feel the effect of. this it was late in the summer of 2021. where I started. noticing women a lot more women and I. saw children a lot of unaccompanied.

children myal and her husband started. seeing this huge number of migrants it. was just shocking to see so many people. and then you would see them completely. naked getting out of the riv they were. swiming across the Rio Grandy they were. step in her backyard and they would cut. across their peacon Farm hundreds of. people that we would see in in. town that were not from here we all. everybody sees it everybody Eagle Pass. was being overwhelmed um police were. getting a lot more more service call.

from residents competing of more people. crossing in their backyard and there. were just a lot more migrants than the. city could handle it was you like normal. that's when I told myself and my husband. this is not right there's something. wrong with this picture and we should. not become immune to. it in the first Democratic primary. debate Biden says when he's president. illegal immigrants should immediately. this is quote immediately surg to the.

border and as all this is playing on the. southern border this entire crisis is. created simply by Joe Biden's actions. and words Republicans were pointing the. blame squarely at the White House well. look I guess I should be flattered. people are coming because I'm the nice. guy that's the reason why it's happening. truth of the matter is nothing has. changed Biden defended himself you know. saying that this problem started before. he even became president it had nothing. to do with him there was a 31% increase. under Trump because he was a nice guy.

and he was doing good things at the. border that's not the reason they're. coming and the truth is that between the. pandemic you know the situation under. theground in central of South America. and the change of administrations it's. hard to point out just one reason that. Crossings were going up but Crossings. were up my phone has been ringing off. the hook from ranchers and and this. region and regions west of here. meanwhile about the dramatic increase in. the number of people who are crossing. their ranches and causing Mayhem on.

their Ranches Texas governor Greg Avid. said he was going to go around the. federal government. Texas is not going to shy away from. stepping up and filling the Gap that the. federal government has left open and. just deal with the Border himself we've. we've launched operation lonar he came. up with this plan called operation Lone. Star right and we've covered operation. Lone Star on the show in the past it was.

unusual because here was a governor of a. state saying that state government was. going to do this role that has. traditionally been carried out by the. federal government which is secure the. border right you was s like you know. move over I'm taking charge we're ready. we're waiting for you if you dare step. into the state of Texas Texas will use. every tool and strategy we can to to. arrest anybody who's violating the law. to put behind the bar anybody's. violating the law to make sure that the.

laws in the state of Texas are going to. be enforced if you are a caravaner you. know abis plan is to send a huge number. of Texas National Guard troops and state. troopers to fortify the border and more. aggressively seek out migrants from. Crossing illegally and one of the places. where Abid implemented operation Lone. Star was e pass and Edgar how welcome or. unwelcome is Abbott's plan to have the. state fill in for the federal government.

in Eagle Pass with people like Mall very. welcome people like mcgall were really. grateful that the governor had this plan. you know and magali to be clear border. for Aid so it makes sense that she would. trust the promise that he's making you. know to deal with this problem but even. people who didn't Bard for Aid realized. there was a. problem thank you we're going to go to. the left then and one of those people is. Jesse Fuentes I just on the air we can.

sit out here if you want or we can sit. in the little library in there however. you're comfortable Jesse grew up in. Eagle Pass he's a Democrat like I said. we grew up a couple of blocks from the. river so we were at the river every day. we were we were in the water we were. fishing we were playing mudball fights. he actually runs a business giving kayak. tours on the river and that's giving him. an up close view to see in the sech I. mean you could see that that Federal. forces were a little overwhelmed and. even even he was seeing that there was a.

need for some sort of intervention. because people were everywhere and I. understood that we needed help and so. when he hears about this idea operation. laar he thinks it could really help were. people initially like you also hopeful. and welcoming of that help was there an. anticipation I think there was uh. optimism that they were going to come in. they were going to help us control it uh. within the Norms that they were going to. work with uh custom board of protection. and there was going to be an amazing uh.

control or security without cruelty. right like a lot of people in Eagle Pass. I think he was really hopeful he wanted. to believe that operation lar was going. to fix. everything you know I I think of the. traveling Angel genre of film where you. know the good guy comes to town he. rescues the town and he writes off on. the horse and he leaves I said that's. what's going to happen they're going to. come in they're going to help us get it. under control.

establish uh operating procedures and. move on and I was tolerant of it like. everybody. else what elements attracted to you that. that you heard from the governor back. then that you know we're going to help. you we're here to help you did he say. how no he. [Music]. didn't we'll be right back. [Music].

so amid all this optimism from the. residents of Eagle Pass what does. operation lonar actually look like there. in practice so operation laar really. hinges on this idea the National Guard. members and state troopers will come to. towns like Eagle Pass and help border. patrol deal with the surge but the. problem is you know these troops don't.

actually have jurisdiction to operate on. the border that's really a function of. the federal government so the governor. came out with a work around the officers. have to work with private land owners. and make arrangements to station. themselves on the property and often. times they arrest migrants who have just. crossed over they charge them with. trespassing and other times they just. bring them over to the border patrol so. because State Police can't arrest people. for immigration offenses you're saying. they have to arrest them specifically.

for trespassing and they have to do that. on the property of willing private land. owners who give them permission to do. that exactly you know and Mel and her. husband were among the first land owners. to cooperate in Eagle Pass when he was. talking about lonar they came to us and. they invited us to meetings and they. said that they wanted to put up a fence. because there were so many people. crossing and we were okay with my. husband me know first contract where.

they basically gave up control to some. of property especially the areas facing. the river MH and the agreement was. initially just to allow the state police. to build a fence that way they would. deter migrants from Crossing to the. property or final the migrants into a. smaller area mhm and how did that work. out at the beginning what was that like. it was fine everybody was in that corner. which is why we said keep it to the. corner stay away from the orchard. because it's a.

business just make sense and at the. beginning it's going well you know. there's more control of migrants in. their property and the state police and. the national Guardsmen give them a sense. of safety but then one day she goes down. to the river in her property that day uh. they just showed up and they just. started putting SE and I told them we. didn't want it we had already talked the. state and she says the state troopers a. national Guardsman installing a long row. costantina wire along the river with her.

property and she's kind of taken a back. by this I didn't like it one bit I just. knew that I was there's nothing I could. do and I'm not the type that's going to. just throw myself and just stop stop I. just said okay I'm not it has to happen. there's nothing I can do I'm by myself. they're not listening to me did youut it. lefts her feeling a sense of uneasiness. because when she looks at her property. now it's just this wall of course Tina. wire two or three tiers on top of each.

other with this sharp Racers you know. right which is the kind of site you. normally see outside a prison these. Loops of concertino wire not normally. associated with someone's yard exactly. and that wasn't the only barrier they. installed yeah can you just describe. what what we're looking at here we are. at the northern part of our property on. on the river side and you can see that. the river is about 25 30 yards from us.

and the booies are about 50 yards from. us yeah they also install buoys there. are just this long string of orange. balls outside her property by the river. and the purpose is to prevent migrants. from Crossing but of course when magali. goes to the property by the river she. just sees this like giant orange balls. the size of dumpsters wow the next thing. she knows you know they're building. roads on her property just for the. vehicles from the state police Humes. military vehicles they can now.

crisscross the property looking for. migrants just to be clear they're. building actual roads on her Orchard. that's exactly right you know and what. this results in is that uh all this dust. from the trucks are hitting her trees um. which really affects the growth of the. peons that she was trying to to grow. during her harvest season these are the. trees that have just just so much dust. just constantly and she points at us. that the least of the trees just look.

Brown you know there are no no one oh. wow and they're not growing any peons. they should have at least you would be. able to see. one because it's about to be the Harvest. right right and she's really frustrated. because she can compare that to areas. where there are no uh State officials. and that part of her property is. actually growing peons H so it's. starting to very much feel like mall is. losing control of her land which is no.

doubt very frustrating to her but it's. got to be Complicated by the reality. that she signed a contract letting the. state come into her property and do all. of this right exactly so people like my. and her husband were the ones who kind. of agreed to this Arrangement okay well. what about Jesse this canoe and kayak. operator you mentioned earlier what was. his experience like with operation lonar. yeah so he used to to run his business. on Shelby Park which is a park and.

downtown Eagle Pass next to the Rio. Grande but once the oper Lo start came. almost overnight the park became a. staging ground what we're looking at. here is is the staging area for. operation lonar or military trucks. checkpoints for migrants Crossing in the. biggest concentration of uh airboats cuz. remember the park is right next to the. river there's a stack of shipping. containers um there's officers. everywhere eliminated all the floor and.

the fauna on the edges of of the River. Bank more wires like the once magali is. looking at every day in her property. they've bulldozed a highway along the. edge of it they've erased about five. different islands that were in the. middle of the river they've killed our. River they've killed it so just a. decides that he can really run tours on. the river anymore uh the place is. overrun by military AR vehicles and. police officers it's just no place for.

him to operate a business right and I'm. presuming that there isn't a whole lot. of interest in taking a kayak or canoe. tour of the Rio Grande at a place where. it's been that. militarized I mean how can I promote. this you know how can you promote this. right so he feels like he has no place. to go now you know he took his kayaks. and his canoes back to his property um. away from the river and he's hoping for.

the day when the operation lar would. cease to be in Eagle Pass but he's. wondering if that's going to take months. years or perhaps never so at this point. operation lonar which originally had. been welcomed with pretty much Open Arms. by people like mall and Jesse is now. turning into quite a major headache for. them both correct you know it's not just. mgal and Jesse who are mad it seems like. everyone you talk to an Eagle pass is.

going increasingly upset in a series of. events that happen over the summer. really brings that anger to a. head and Happening Now On the Border. four migrants drowned in the Rio Grand. in a 48-hour time span in July several. migrants drowned in the river a woman. and an infant were found unresponsive. and Eagle Pass there is Backlash. following claims DPS troopers were. ordered to mistreat illegal immigrants.

crossing the border and then later that. month a State Trooper came out and said. that he and his colleagues had been. directed to turn migrants back in the. middle of the river you know instead of. bringing them ashore for processing and. they had also been directed to deny. people water the trooper wrote I believe. we've stepped over the line into. inhumane and meanwhile you know the. staff at the shelter in town were. reporting that migrants were showing out. with gaping wounds from Crossing Through. the centino Wire what I saw on the River. today that's not what I want to be known.

for opsin SCS on human beings that. should. not should not be exposed to this kind. of treatment and you see this real big. pouring of objection from locals you. know about what they see as more than. just an issue with their property the ey. Source but increasingly you know what. they see as a moral. failure.

so Edgar it feels like the costs of. operation Lone Star have turned out to. be very high for the residents it's. meant giving up land views river access. even in the case of Mall business and. the humanitarian cost is also very high. but the deal was you pay these costs and.

you get border security so the question. is is border security what Eagle Pass. ultimately got quite simply no over the. first two years of operation L star. Crossings have gone up and down in. places like Eagle Pass but most recently. the town has seen a huge surge in. illegal Crossings and for people like. magali I don't think this is surprising. I was going to ask has so has it worked.

has it helped any of it they're still. coming through here it's just looed down. like two neighbors down to the north of. us they're taking pulling them out. through there and and my goly say a few. people are coming directly to her. property but instead going around to her. neighbor's property like how many people. will you say a month these days or a. week I I drove by maybe it was last week. and I saw May be uh 70 80 people in the.

evening what was your reaction to that. when you're like concerned well we all. know no we all know that it's still. happening it's it's just they're they're. saying that they're stopping it but all. they're doing is just pushing it to the. sides so given how all of this has. turned out how does Mall feel. about the fact that she decided to take. on such a big role in this operation I.

think she feels conflicted about it on. one hand she really wanted to see a. solution but this is definitely not what. she. envisioned I think they sold us one idea. and then we got another not just me. everybody down here she told me that if. she had known that all of these things. were going to happen in her property she. would never had agreed to cooperate like. I said if they would have painted this. picture and said this is what we're. going to do after You' worked on here. and done all this to your property we're. going to come in here and do this to it. and destroy it well why would have said.

no way do you think this this dissuades. migrants from coming over when they see. the buoys and the centina wire and the. fences when just visually do you think. that no MM they've crossed through the. Garian Gap and they've left some loved. ones there and they got up and they kept. walking this is not going to stop. them at the end of the day M feels like. she's back but she started in. 2021 and she's growing increasingly.

frustrated by the lack of solution from. any elected official so I ask her does. she feel like anyone is actually trying. to help her now you you spoken to. Democrats and Republicans about this why. are you hearing back from them nothing. we don't hear anything other than it's. just the other one's fault it's it's the. blame. game they need to address it everybody. that's been using it for their own. political gain needs to just just. stop and think if y'all really care they.

all say they care about the United. States of America and what's in the best. interest for us all then then do. it stop using it why don't they they. every all you hear is blame blame blame. blame we've been blaming people since. what the 60s 70s the 80s the who are you. going to blame next year who are you. going to blame in 10 years why don't. youall want to fix it what do you mean. when you say don't don't use it they all. use it when they're running for. office immigration is one of those.

things that they talk about when they're. they're all everybody that you know. we're going to have a presidential. election but your take is that it's a. lot of talk yes and and we've seen them. all a lot of people have come down here. and what do they all say and what have. they. [Music]. done well Edgar thank you very much we. appreciate it thank you for having me. [Music].

the times reports that Texas governor. Greg Abbot is now seeking new legal. powers to strengthen operation. lonar Abbott frustrated that State. Police can only arrest migrants on. charges of trespassing on private land. is trying to change Texas law so that. police can arrest migrants on any. property along the Texas border by. making illegal Crossings a State.

Crime such a law which is likely to be. challenged in court would be a direct. challenge to Federal authority over. immigration we'll be right. [Music]. back.

here's what else you need to know. today on Wednesday as President Biden. arrived in Israel both the US and Israel. said that early evidence showed that the. deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza. was caused by Palestinian Fighters not. by Israel the evidence gathered by the. us including satellite and infrared. imagery suggest that a rocket fired from.

a position in Gaza misfired and landed. on the hospital where it killed hundreds. of civilians I come to Israel with a. single message you're not. alone you are not alone in a rare. wartime speech to the Israeli people. Biden compared hamas's attack on Israel. last weekend to the trauma of the. September 11th Terror attacks against. the United States in 2001 you can't look. at what has happened here to your.

mothers your fathers your. grandparents Sons daughters children. even babies and not scream out for. justice justice must be done but even as. Biden pledged American Support to Israel. he took pains to call for restraint. during its coming invasion of Gaza. invoking America's own excesses after. 9/11 but I caution this while you feel. that rage don't be consumed by it after.

9/11 we were en raged in the United. States while we sought Justice and got. Justice we also made. mistakes and for the second time in 2. days Republican representative Jim. Jordan of Ohio lost a vote to become. Speaker of the House This Time by an. even wider margin than he did on Tuesday. as moderate Republicans once again. rejected his Ultra conservative record.

one of those moderate Republicans Mike. ller of New York told CNN that Jordan. has little chance of ever prevailing. look it's clear he doesn't have the. votes uh I don't I don't see the outcome. changing here uh and so the question for. uh Jim and for the conference is uh how. do we get back to work with the house. unable to elect a speaker there were. growing calls to empowerer a temporary.

unelected speaker to carry out the. chamber's work perhaps through the end. of the. year today's episode was produced by. Nina Feldman Diana win and Luke Vander. pluk it was edited by Devin Taylor fact. checked by Susan Lee contains original. music by Mary and Lozano Chelsea Daniel. and row nisto and was engineered by.

Chris Wood our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben lanceur of. wonderly special thanks to David Goodman. and Eileen. [Music]. [Music]. Sullivan that's it for the daily I'm. Michael. borro see. [Music].

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