The U.S.-Mexico border as described on the marketing campaign path or seen on the information can simply create an image of all border cities as lawless and chaotic.
However the actuality is extra nuanced, as a CBS Information crew realized throughout a 1,600-mile journey from McAllen, Texas, to the California coast.
Laredo, Texas, was ranked as one of many most secure cities within the state, based on evaluation from the CBS Information information crew. Mayor Victor Trevino stated his metropolis isn’t the Wild West he typically sees depicted.
“The cartels, there’s crime and this and that, which isn’t true,” Trevino informed CBS Information.
He factors to a special sort of surge, during which $320 billion in microchips, produce and Normal Motors and Tesla automotive components come by prepare and truck yearly by way of the Port of Laredo, America’s busiest port of entry.
About 500 miles west, in Presidio, Texas, restaurant proprietor Hector Armendariz sees individuals leaving Presidio for higher paying jobs, together with his three kids.
“They’ve left they usually do not come again,” Armendariz stated. “All our youngsters depart they usually do not come again.”
Presidio Mayor John Ferguson says the native economic system depends on tons of of Mexican residents who legally cross the border on daily basis to work in eating places or oil fields. Ferguson believes Presidio could be in “critical hassle” if it was tougher for Mexican residents to come back throughout the border to work.
“Like, you realize, the pandemic, the place you did not have sufficient staff and issues would decelerate and…sure sectors would possibly sort of dry up,” Ferguson stated.
Philip Skinner, mayor of Columbus, New Mexico, says that with out border commerce, many border cities would shrink, and that will include sudden penalties. For instance, Skinner explains, there aren’t any dentists in Columbus, however there are about 10 dentists simply throughout the border in Puerto Palomas, Mexico. Columbus residents who want dental work will journey to Mexico, Skinner stated.
Arizona borders Mexico for greater than 350 miles and it’s a drug smuggling hotspot. In accordance with U.S. Customs and Border Safety, within the 2024 fiscal yr, 66% of the fentanyl seized on the U.S.-Mexico border occurred within the Tucson sector, which covers all of the border ports in Arizona.
Donald Huish, mayor of Douglas, Arizona, was in favor of the bipartisan Senate border invoice that has been entrance and middle of the presidential marketing campaign. The invoice died after criticism from former President Donald Trump.
“It could assist us, as a result of we might’ve had extra Border Patrol brokers,” Huish stated. “…I can perceive why individuals did not like all the invoice, however why cease speaking about it?”
Frustration is all over the place alongside the border, together with for Mark Dannels, sheriff of Arizona’s Cochise County, who struggles with the inflow of drug mules and human smugglers.
Dannels says he is not essentially optimistic or pessimistic about Cochise’s future, simply unsure.
“It is extra of an unknown as a result of politics and the nation is so divided proper now,” Dannels stated.
