April 15, 11:39 a.m.
More migrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas than Martinez recalls in his 13 years as Val Verde County Sheriff. They wade across the Rio Grande river and into residents’ yards.
But it is members of his own community that have Martinez most concerned.
Last month, he said, a resident fired his gun to scare a group of migrants walking on the outskirts of town; nearby schools were locked down in response. He said unfounded accusations have spread on social media blaming migrants for crimes like break-ins. And at a recent community meeting, Martinez said, a resident asked him if she could use “deadly force” to stop migrants who step onto her land.
“Something like that happens, you got a different situation on your hands,” Martinez said.
Tensions are rising in Del Rio, a city of 35,000, as the nation once again grapples with an increase in migrants seeking entry into the United States. In the area around Del Rio alone, border agents have made more than 68,000 apprehensions so far this fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That figure is four times larger than the number recorded over the same period last year.
The influx has created a humanitarian and political challenge for President Joe Biden, who has vowed to treat migrants more humanely than his predecessor Donald Trump. The Biden administration has allowed children traveling alone and some families with kids to enter the United States to claim asylum. But it is still applying a Trump-era measure that calls for many unauthorized border crossers to be expelled.
The strains are evident in Del Rio, perched on the border about 150 miles west of San Antonio. Martinez and other long-time residents say some in this 85% Hispanic community are showing increased hostility towards migrants.
Shifting local and national politics play a role, they said. Val Verde County went for Trump by a ten-point margin in 2020, the first Republican presidential candidate to win here since Texas native George W. Bush in 2004.
Some voters approved of Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration. A good number of residents work for CBP or at nearby Laughlin Air Force Base. And while the city is thoroughly bilingual and bi-national, locals are not as used to seeing large groups of people from countries like Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela that have crossed here in recent weeks.
Del Rio has a single facility to care for migrants. It served 2,070 people in March, the highest-ever monthly total, according to operations director Tiffany Burrow. Virtually all move on to somewhere else to await the outcome of their asylum claims, she said.
The center, Burrow said, feels more exposed than in the past. Some locals have taken to idling their cars outside, filming migrants on their phones and posting the videos on social media – something Burrow says isn’t making her job any easier.
“It’s putting on a spectacle,” she said. “I don’t want it to be like that. We have a mission to accomplish,” which she said is getting migrants on their way as soon as possible.
Oriana Fernandez, economic development director for Del Rio, said the community was already dealing with enough challenges before the current drama over migration.
The February unemployment rate in Val Verde County was 7.6%, up from 4% in February 2020, government statistics show. Coronavirus-related border restrictions have hit hard in a city whose fortunes are inexorably linked to Ciudad Acuña, the Mexican city across the border that is five times Del Rio’s size. Del Rio depends on revenue from Mexican consumers as well as tolls collected at the international bridge when cars, trucks and pedestrians cross – what Fernandez calls the city’s “golden goose.”
About a mile from Del Rio’s border fence, a low-slung building houses the migrant shelter operated by the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition. The bare-bones center has no permanent beds or kitchen. Meals come from a Salvation Army food truck.
Until recently, the facility flew mostly under the radar, said Burrow, the operations director. The uptick in arrivals and the mayor’s viral video have changed that.
Still, she understands his perspective. “He’s looking at, what can we supply, what are our resources, and how much can we give?” she said. “And there’s a limit.”
Volunteer Lupita De La Paz said she comes in part because she is a first-generation Mexican-American. Facebook in Del Rio has been particularly cruel of late, she said, with posts railing about migrants being rotten parents for dragging their kids on a dangerous journey.
De La Paz said she avoids discussing her volunteer work with members of her own family who oppose this current crop of migrants.
“I think we sometimes forget where we come from,” she said.
