On the southern border, how do Texas residents feel about the incoming Trump administration?
EAGLE PASS – In just days, Donald Trump will be sworn in to serve a second term as president. And while the new administration is sure to bring policy shifts on several fronts, some of the most notable may involve the southern border.
For the past several years, immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border has become an increasingly polarizing topic — debated by even those who live far beyond the border's stretches. At 1,954 miles long, the border between the two countries is vast and diverse in its geography. And more than 1,200 of those miles are between Mexico and Texas.
Eagle Pass isn't the largest border town in Texas, but the town of 23,000 has become the focal point in the debate. In the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day, Ken Molestina and a CBS Texas crew traveled to Eagle Pass to speak with residents, faith community leaders and law enforcement officials about they hopes, fears and expectations from the Trump administration.
How the Texas border turned red
Jessie Fuentes and Amerika Garcia Grewal are two of Eagle Pass's most vocal advocates in the debate over immigration and border security. They both have spoken out against the heavy military and law enforcement presence that has popped up in Eagle Pass over the past few years.
"What this is, is the greatest theft of tax dollars that the state of Texas has ever seen and soon that the United States has ever seen," Garcia Grewal said.
Both activists said they're not looking forward to the incoming Trump administration, with its promises of more patrols and mass deportations.
"The worst is yet to be seen," Fuentes said. "What's coming is ugly, and we tried to prepare people for this."
While Fuentes and Garcia Grewal may not be excited about what the next four years will mean for immigration policy, plenty of others along this border region are. In total, 14 border counties went red for Trump during the 2024 presidential election — some for the first time in decades.
Molestina spoke with several residents in Eagle Pass and nearby Del Rio about why they think the border turned red.
"A lot of them are on a limited income," said Del Rio business owner Gary Humphreys. "And when they're going to the grocery store, they're seeing what's happening."
Others also named immigration as a reason so many residents in the region voted for Trump.
"I'm looking forward for them to close the border and not have so many people come in at once," said Jose Perez, an Eagle Pass business owner. "My personal car has ended up at the checkpoint, where I just woke up in the morning to a phone call telling me that my vehicle was at the checkpoint and had been stolen out of my driveway."
The Texas border and religion
Even within the religious community on the border, there are differing views on border politics.
"The word of God says welcome the stranger, because we were once strangers," said Javier Leyva, the pastor at Eagle Pass First United Methodist Church. The church is also connected with the nonprofit Mission Border Hope, an organization that helps to process, feed and transport migrants to their final destinations.
About 50 northwest, at the Baruch Hashem Assembly, a Messianic synagogue in Del Rio, Rabbi Manny Rodriguez had a different perspective.
"As a religious leader, biblically I believe in the laws of the land," Rodriguez said. "I believe those laws should be obeyed."
As a supporter of incoming President-elect Trump, he's excited to see changes to immigration enforcement during the next four years.
Law enforcement officials emboldened
While law enforcement efforts to secure Texas' border with Mexico have come under heavy criticism in the past years by immigrant rights advocates, many law enforcement officials say they are feeling positive as President-elect Trump prepares to return to the White House.
One of the most criticized border security efforts in Texas has been the controversial Operation Lone Star, launched by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021. He deployed Texas DPS troopers to border hot spots to help deter illegal crossings and ordered them to arrest those who are in the country illegally for state crimes they commit.
DPS Lt. Christopher Olivarez, a spokesman for Operation Lone Star, said in an interview that he thinks the next Trump presidency will help their efforts on the border.
"I think it's also going to make it more efficient. Now that we have support now at the federal level. Something we have been wanting for the last four years. I think it's going to be helpful to us and the governor and what he has been able to do with Operation Lone Star," Olivarez said.