The future of illegal crossings along Texas’ border with Mexico hinges largely on the results of the 2024 presidential election—and Texans have something to say about it. 

“They are not staying here,” Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith said. “They are moving through. They’re headed to the major metropolitan areas of Texas, and they’re headed across the United States.” 

Kinney County sits between Del Rio and Eagle Pass on Texas’ southern border.

Smith told Texas Scorecard that how Texans and Americans vote in November will determine four more years of crisis or of taking meaningful steps to secure the border and rid the state of cartel activity. 

This is because building the border wall alone will not solve the crisis. As Smith noted, it is just the start. Removing cartels, protecting Americans, and resolving the issues already inside the country are only some of the major tasks that must be done. 

Over the past four years, border communities have been wracked by what the rest of American cities are only now feeling in places like Dallas, Houston, Springfield, Ohio, Aurora, Colorado, and many others.  

“Our border has been broken for decades,” Kate Hobbs said. “There’s been a lack of willingness from our federal government to fix it, and there’s been a reluctance to address that issue from the state governments.”

Hobbs, having managed a farm in Quemado with her husband for decades, has seen the effects of the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies firsthand. 

Her border-front property, which lies along a several-mile stretch of the Rio Grande, has sustained heavy amounts of damage as a result of illegal border crossings. Illegal aliens have destroyed Hobbs’ fences and gates, attempted to steal vehicles, and ravaged crops. 

Yet the story Hobbs recalled with particular clarity is when she and her husband discovered five young girls abandoned on their property. 

Dehydrated, deserted, and discarded to the sweltering 103-degree heat, it is unlikely that they would have survived had the Hobbses not discovered them and alerted Border Patrol. The children were all seven years old and younger. Three of them—ages 2, 3, and 7—were from Honduras. 

The two others were from Guatemala. One was 5 years old and the other was just eleven months old. 

One of the children, suffering from dehydration, was initially thought dead when she was found. 

“Those poor little kids—they don’t know what’s going on,” Jimmy Hobbs said at the time. “They were dumped… left to whatever. I guess they felt like somebody would eventually find them. Luckily we did.”

“It’s time that the state AG’s [attorneys general] stand up and start retaining and taking back their state’s sovereignty,” Kate Hobbs told Texas Scorecard, overwhelmed with frustration due to the federal government’s inaction.   

Smith stated that a central issue as to why the border crisis continues is the lack of implementation and enforcement of existing immigration law. 

“You can have the perfect law written and the perfect policy that’s passed, signed by the governor, and goes into effect. But if you cannot implement it well, then it’s going to fall on its face,” he said. 

As county attorney, Smith has been at the forefront of the legal battle for border security. In April 2021, he published an open letter asserting that Texas needed to declare a state of invasion, which got the ball rolling for the initiation of Operation Lone Star. 

“‘Frustrating’ is the best word to describe it,” he said of his job. “Because you know about all the legal tools the state and the federal government could use to fix the crisis overnight.” 

Yet, according to Smith, Austin is well behind Texas border counties in taking direct action. “If I could have it my way, we would have had it done on day one,” Smith asserted. “We’re three-and-a-half years into it now and we still don’t have a law enforcement agency tasked with border security.” 

Because of this, Smith argued that the resurrection of the Texas Department of Homeland Security in the upcoming legislative session is crucial to solving this problem. 

“People that are undecided in this election blow my mind,” Smith stated. He explained that life in Kinney County has changed dramatically in the past four years. 

For example, the school in Kinney County has had to install large boulders around campus to prevent human smugglers from driving through the area in their attempts to evade law enforcement. 

The children are also taught to be aware of signs of danger.

“When people hear a helicopter in the air, normally people don’t associate that with danger or a criminal episode occurring,” Smith explained. “But here, it’s usually a bailout, or a smuggling chase, or law enforcement trying to pursue someone who’s here illegally or trespassing.”

Kinney County has experienced intense human smuggling efforts—which often result in high-speed and dangerous chases.  

The county’s Chief Deputy Armando Garcia told Texas Scorecard human smugglers often drive through the county to avoid border patrol checkpoints. 

When pursued by law enforcement, smugglers often drive straight through anything in their path. “By this time, they’ve damaged a lot of property with that vehicle,” Garcia said. “And once that vehicle comes to a stop, they will all bail out of that vehicle and take off running.” 

According to his assessment, smugglers employ this tactic often because they believe it will enhance their chances of escaping capture—rather than simply stopping cars full of aliens on the road and running away on foot from that point on. 

Smith, Hobbs, and Garcia all expressed hope that their communities would be able to begin undoing the damage of the past four years come November 5, 2024. 

As the results of the November election will decide what happens next for Texas and illegal immigration levels, Hobbs said her solution is to “Vote Trump.” 

“This next election will determine whether we have permanent open borders,” she concluded. “Or, it will determine if we are selective about the people we allow into the country, and that we want them to come in the right way—the legal way.”

 

Will Biagini

Will was born in Louisiana and raised in a military family. He currently serves as a journalist with Texas Scorecard. Previously, he was a senior correspondent for Campus Reform.

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