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The tension at the nation's southern border may not be reaching ears in Washington, but it is palpable in the small communities that dot the United States' shared border with Mexico.
According to statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department (CBP), nearly 900,000 land border encounters along the US’s southern border were reported since President Joe Biden's inauguration, representing a 291% spike in encounters compared to last fiscal year 2020.
Longtime residents of border communities such as Del Rio are experiencing the impacts of the border crisis firsthand.
"The crisis at the border has had a tremendous impact on my family and many of my friends," Laura Allen, a former Val Verde County judge, told Houston Daily. "My family owns a ranch outside of town and for many years there has been a constant presence of border patrol on our land."
Allen said she is no longer seeing agents on her property, on Lake Amistad and the Rio Grande, on a daily basis. This area where her property is, Allen said, "has long been known for a high incidence of drug smuggling," adding, "We have found individuals in our pastures, both on foot and in vehicles."
Intercepting a drug trafficking incidence happening on her property is not an option for Allen and her family, as many spots on her land are remote and with difficult access or escape routes. This could escalate an encounter with human and drug traffickers on her property into more violent and tragic outcomes.
Since they can never be sure of what smugglers are willing to do to protect the contraband, Allen said she and her loved ones face a very real danger.
The question of whether Allen and her family feel safe is complicated and difficult to answer. When in her home and armed with personal defense, she feels confident in her family's ability to protect themselves. Being out in the ranch or on the highway begs a different answer.
"Cell service is hit-and-miss, meaning that should we need assistance, we may not be able to reach anyone. We are on our own," Allen said.
While there is much to debate about the previous administration’s handling of immigration, a Department of Homeland Security assessment cites the migrant protection protocols (MPP) or the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy from the Trump era as effective in limiting illegal immigration, empowering the Mexican government and quickly processing meritorious claims for relief.
In a recent accounting to public policy experts reported by The Cannon, Sheriff Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez points to the MPP as a “rare example of D.C.-driven immigration success” while lamenting the rushed canceling of the policy (without notice to local law enforcement) under by the Biden administration.
The community of Del Rio is suffering under a large increase in crime, Allen said. Undocumented immigrants who have been processed and released by border patrol are often milling about on the streets, soliciting transportation to leave the area or just loitering, she added.
"People that I have spoken to feel that, as humans, nobody wants to see another suffer," Allen said.
As a former Del Rio police dispatcher, she has witnessed plenty of human suffering firsthand. The multitudes of illegally trafficked humans across the southern border is nothing like the community has ever seen before, the former judge said.
"We have always had groups of illegals that crossed the border but, generally, it was just a handful of people at a time," Allen said. "Currently, groups can easily be in excess of 100 at one time. Smugglers, or coyotes, carrying illegals on our highways have gotten much more brazen and willing to go to extremes—even death—rather than be caught."
It is not uncommon to see immigrant or drug traffickers dressed head-to-toe in camouflage, weapons in hand, walking through ranches in the area.
"In the past we have encountered people on our land picking up loads of drugs, and we have found people trespassing in our pastures," Allen said. "All of our family and employees now openly carry weapons, which we’ve not done regularly in the past."
Allen is a Republican, but the concern about the border in Texas is bipartisan. Lone Star Democrats have been critical of the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis. A Democratic South Texas member of Congress, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, told the Washington Post in late March that Biden had created a “system that incentivizes people to come across” and was sending a message “that if you come across you can stay.”
For Gonzalez, the fix must be “by changing the policy at our doorstep,” without which the flow “isn’t going to stop or slow down.”
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) has been vocal about the crisis for months.
According to the Post, Cuellar told the administration early on that “we need to get a handle on this before it gets out of hand.”
A recent Pew study revealed that more than two-thirds (68%) of Americans think the current administration is doing a “bad job” at dealing with the border crisis and nearly 8 in 10 (79%) of respondents believe it is very or somewhat important to reduce the number of asylum seekers at the U.S. border.
Del Rio may be a prime example of the urgency of the problem. Allen owns a home on the south side of town, and has witnessed large groups of illegal immigrants apprehended just by looking out of her window.
"We have seen smaller groups of illegal men wearing camouflage and walking in broad daylight through a family-owned hayfield next to our home," she said. "Illegals seeking border patrol are not as much of a concern as the smaller groups of men only that are attempting to evade detection by border patrol."
The sense of safety that Allen felt when she moved to Del Rio at the age of 4 is long gone. She said there is even danger in attempting to leave town to travel to a doctor. All roads leading away from Del Rio have had high-speed chases, bailouts where illegal immigrants will simply jump out of a car and abandon it on the road because they believe they may be caught, and even large groups of migrants attempting to stop traffic on the highway to solicit transportation.
"I do not feel safe traveling on our highways because of the many wrecks that have happened," Allen said. "While we can control our driving and mitigate dangers as much as possible, we cannot control what may be waiting for us around a curve or over a hill out of sight."
Allen was a paralegal at the U.S. Attorney's Office, and has been involved in politics since 1998. She served as Precinct Three county commissioner from 2000-2004 and was county judge for four years. As a lifelong Val Verde resident and a longtime political observer, Allen said she is not the only one frustrated that ordinary families and citizens are the people at the frontlines for this growing invasion.
"We try every way possible to share our knowledge and experience with others throughout the nation," she said. "It is not uncommon to find people that believe we are either telling tall tales or are shocked that they had no knowledge of what has been happening.
"It is so very important that other areas of our country understand that these illegals are not staying at the border. They are traveling by any means necessary to places far from where they have entered the United States. Our government officials most importantly need to recognize we have a problem and then set their differences aside to uphold the oath they’ve all taken to protect our country."
Cueller recently criticized the Biden administration's indifference to the issue. While he did thank Vice President Kamala Harris for discouraging illegal attempts to enter the U.S., the representative said it's time someone gives their undivided attention to the local communities that are being most impacted.
“With all due respect, just coming and doing a staged event is not enough. They have to understand," Rep. Cuellar said according to The Texan.
Drug and illegal immigration traffic are not the only consequences of the current administration's inattention, critics say. There has been an increase in other crimes related to cartel criminal enterprise. The West RGV News reported earlier this year that generational South Texas rancher, Whit Jones III, noted that immediately following the Biden administration rollback of Trump era policies, he has seen a “significant increase” of human trafficking and smuggling.
According to Reuters, many cartels in Mexico who previously stole oil and sold drugs are shifting to a new line of work—human trafficking. Mexico is an origin, transit and destination country for the sex trafficking industry, and has recently seen an uptick in gangs shifting to dealing in people. Cartels that have shifted to the human trafficking industry include the oil-pipeline-tapping and Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima gang, as well as the Mexico City Tepito Union drug gang.
Allen added that illegal trafficking should not be a partisan issue for any elected official at any level.
"The current inaction of our government is a crime against our nation," she said. "I am a Republican that has joined hands with many local Democrats to bring attention to what’s happening at our southern border. This influx of illegals affects every state regardless of what party is in control there."
The former judge questioned how much more crime, how much more homelessness, how much more strain and drain on public services will it take for the system to break. She said it is "not something that can be managed long-term."
"We have seen the beginnings of this in the past, but it was quickly stopped by the Trump administration with the 'Stay in Mexico' policy," Allen said. "There was a swift and visible difference made just as the reversal of the prior administration's policies have created a swift, visible and unfathomable increase in illegal crossings."
Allen disagrees with the notion that the border problem is a humanitarian crisis, noting that plenty of Mexican citizens have taken the appropriate measures to enter the U.S. legally, whether to seek medical care or otherwise.
"When we are allowing thousands of illegals to enter our country and then travel about freely, that is a slap in the face to those that have followed our laws and were given those rights, only to have them stripped away without merit," Allen said. "A true humanitarian seeks to make social changes that better humanity as whole."
All in all, small communities like Del Rio are not equipped to handle the inundation of illegal immigrant traffic.
"Our way of life has become one of distrust, fear, limitations on safety and health care, and a general decline in our ability to help ourselves, much less help others," Allen said. "It is imperative that every government official and every American citizen recognize that we have become a country with a huge humanitarian crisis of our own making."