Del Rio used to be a quiet town of 40,000 residents bordering Mexico in central Texas. Even as the Rio Grande Valley to its southeast has seen constant waves of Central American migrants since 2014, Del Rio was untouched by the border crisis. Now, this part of Texas is one of the fastest-growing smuggling routes and is also the primary route of African migrants coming from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Our federal government is so concerned about the desires of bogus asylum-seekers, and now even masses of illegal aliens who aren’t even seeking asylum, that they are failing to take into account the needs of local American communities. It’s not just right-wing cowboys upset about it. Liberal Democrat border town officials have had enough as well and are demanding federal action.
On June 8, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano laced into staffers of Sen. John Cornyn at special meeting of local officials for not touring the city and taking a more proactive role in protecting border towns from the effects of illegal immigration.
“I asked that you go see firsthand and walk through what the Border Patrol is walking through, walk through the system of release, walk through the coalition [of nonprofits and churches], walk through the judicial process, because the senators aren’t here,” said Lozano, chewing out Jonathan Huhn, the director of Sen. Cornyn’s San Antonio office. He accused Texas’ two senators of not showing up. “They need to see firsthand what’s going on. They need to understand the frustrations that the commissioners, or that the city council, the school board, the hospital officials are managing [and] having to deal with.”