Texas residents living along the southern border spoke to Fox News Digital about how the ongoing border crisis is directly impacting their lives.
“Personally, I think we're going to see a 9/11 type of event in the future. Biden has opened the door,” said Paul Henrick, a rancher in Quemado, Texas.
Vann, of Del Rio, Texas, said he sees border crossings almost daily. ““I saw them walking right past sheriff and Border Patrol detention centers,” he said, adding that this was “an everyday occurrence.”
This means that 87% of voters US-Mexico border The number of people who said it was an emergency (44%) or a major problem (43%) has increased since February, when eight in 10 people said it was an emergency (41%) or a major problem (37%), according to the latest survey. Fox News National Poll.
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Diane, a Del Rio resident who lives along the Rio Grande, said she carries a gun for safety, adding that “everyone is being a lot more careful” now.
“Make sure all your doors and locks are on, because you never know what's going to happen,” she said. “Once, a smuggler dropped three guys off right next to my dumpster in the middle of the afternoon. He threw them on the ground, rolled them around and ran away.”
Her neighbors, Joe and Leiza, have had several clashes with migrants on or near their property. Joe shared with Fox News Digital a photo of a body he found floating in the river behind his house: a man with lacerations on his torso and a black garbage bag covering his head.
Joe also said he fired several shotgun rounds at a Hellcat Dodge Challenger that had pulled into his driveway after throwing several people onto a nearby roadway.
Leiza also told Fox News Digital that Border Patrol agents had arrested a migrant washing in a nearby portable toilet — a man the couple later discovered was a repeat sex offender from across the border.
A section of the border wall in Del Rio, Texas, remains unfinished. (Fox News)
Residents who spoke to Fox News Digital also expressed concern about high-speed chases that have erupted as migrants try to elude law enforcement at checkpoints along the river.
Residents said migrants recognize entry points along the border wall built under the Trump administration. In some areas, pieces of border wall lie on the ground in front of the fence that's already in place, but federal policy means the wall can't be made any taller.
Fox News Digital also found an old abandoned bus filled with men's, women's and children's clothing, and other clothing was found in the bushes between several homes.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office announced in June that since the implementation of Operation Lone Star in 2021, there has been a 74% drop in people crossing the Texas-Mexico border.
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star As part of that plan, he installed a border barrier of buoys across the Rio Grande, which sparked a federal lawsuit.
This photo, taken in August 2024, shows an abandoned bus in Del Rio, Texas, filled with clothing from men, women, and children. (Fox News)
Meanwhile, the Biden administrationtThe state government has sued Texas over its recently enacted anti-illegal immigration law, which allows state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants. The government claims that the law interferes with federal authority, impedes U.S. immigration activities and processes, and harms relations with foreign governments.
“Texas has maintained a defensive line on its southern border with miles of barbed wire and anti-trespassing barriers to deter and repel record numbers of illegal immigrants brought on by President Biden's reckless open border policies. Instead of enforcing federal immigration law, the Biden Administration is allowing unfettered access for Mexican cartels to smuggle people into our country,” Abbott press secretary Renae Eze told Fox News in January.
WATCH: Border residents trust Trump more than Harris on border security
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection The data showed that border encounters in Texas fell in June and rose to 46,250 in July, a figure that does not include escapes.
Harris is seeking to change her stance on immigration as she becomes the leading Democratic candidate for the 2024 presidential election, openly criticizing President Trump's border wall in 2020 as a “total waste of taxpayer money.”
But Harris promised last week that if elected president, she would sign into law the border bill that was rejected earlier this year. According to Axios.
The bill, which Trump helped block, calls for hundreds of millions of dollars of unspent funds to be used for the construction of a border wall, but Harris' advisers say the bill does not provide additional funding for the border wall.
Trump and Several Republicans He slammed the bill, which includes a provision to close the border only if 5,000 illegal immigrants cross the border a day, as well as billions of dollars to be paid to Ukraine and Israel.
In fiscal year 2023, more than 2.4 million encounters were recorded, with December recording nearly 250,000 encounters in a single month.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Harris' campaign for comment.
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
Elizabeth Heckman and Nicholas Lanham reported from Texas.
