Fed-Up Del Rio Residents Vent Frustration Over Border Crisis: 'It's the Fault of the President'
In the Texas city that was ground zero for the latest surge of Haitian illegal immigrants, residents know who to blame.
“I feel that it’s the fault of the president,” one local resident of Del Rio, Texas, told Fox News.
Illegal immigrants “felt that they had been promised by the president that they would become United States citizens,” a resident said.
The 35,000-person city was deluged with illegal immigrants last month as a mass of roughly 15,000 Haitians gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge.
Although the mass of migrants has moved on, the town is left with the scars and costs.
A resident named Diane said she had to install security cameras and lights because illegal immigrants wandered into her yard.
She said America should focus on the needs of Americans.
“We need to take care of our own people. We need to take care of our poor people, we need to take care of the vets,” she said, apparently adding harsh words for the Biden administration.
“They’ve done nothing, zero, zilch,” she said.
“It’s been mounting bit by bit,” a woman named Laura said. “It’s not just a thing that happened, like, over the course of one week.”
Miguel Chavez, a local restaurant owner, said feeling sympathy with illegal immigrants is one thing, but dealing with thousands is another.
“Yeah, you know, I welcome immigrants, but not to that point. It’s hard being here as it is,” Chavez said. “I see their problems and I try to feel for them, but we have our own problems.”
Del Rio is not alone. A few hours down the road in Laredo, Texas, Customs and Border Protection built a 100,000 square-foot tent for processing the illegal immigrants who were bused there from Del Rio, according to Fox News.
Robert Eads, Laredo’s city manager, said Laredo has to divert resources to deal with the flood of illegal immigrants.
“What we’re going to have to do is take resources from our community that we’ll have to apply somewhere else,” Eads said. “If it’s an EMT, fire department, police department, traffic control — whatever it may be — we’re going to have to suspend that so we can address this.”
“Our health system cannot support those volumes,” Eads said. “Even if a migrant themselves, God forbid, gets sick, it’s the same resource that we’re going to lack, so they may not get the services that they need.”
The Laredo Police Department is now battling an upsurge in human trafficking.
“We have stash houses that are popping up everywhere,” said Investigator Joe Baeza of the police department’s public information office. “In one particular house we had close to 100 people. Three bathrooms for 100 people. It’s going to be messy.”
“The department always has its hands full but more so now with these issues related to immigration.”
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