Border leaders say their communities are regaining ‘normalcy’ ahead of Trump inauguration

Leaders at the southern border are telling Fox News Digital that despite rumors of a sudden rush, illegal immigration numbers are down, and their communities are beginning to regain a sense of “normalcy” ahead of President-elect Trump’s second inauguration this month.

Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County, Texas, whose community sits between Eagle Pass and Del Rio, told Fox News Digital that “the pendulum has gone from total chaos and has swung back to where it’s more peaceful and everybody’s a little more relaxed.”

Illegal border crossings in Coe’s area soared during the Biden administration, reaching 480,000 in 2022. The city of Eagle Pass, which has a population of just about 28,000, became the center of a legal battle between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and federal authorities as the state attempted to crack down on the record-level border crossings.   

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Immigrants wait to be processed at a U.S. Border Patrol transit center on Dec. 20, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Under the Biden administration’s lax border policies, Coe said people in his county had to deal with huge financial losses and a constant sense of danger and uncertainty. He also said there was a dramatic increase in dangerous law enforcement pursuits in his county.

“In a career, a law enforcement officer might have 10 or 15 good pursuits after a 25- or 30-year career. [In] 2023, one of my deputies was involved in 54 pursuits in one year,” he said. “That same year we did 255 pursuits. So, it’s gone from one or two pursuits a year to 250 pursuits a year… So, yes, it was total chaos.”

But now, with Trump retaking power on Jan. 20, Coe said he is “very optimistic” about the future.

Why the optimism? Coe said: “It’s the change in attitude coming from the administration, plus the change in the attitude of the American people because they’re tired [of the border crisis].”

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Former President Trump attends a briefing with state officials and law enforcement before touring the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Weslaco, Texas. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

He believes the Trump administration will listen to border communities and allow Customs and Border Protection authorities to do their job.

“One of the things that they need to do is A, contact the border sheriffs, the border police chiefs and everybody in border communities to find out what’s going on, keep tabs on that,” he said. “But what the federal government needs to [also] do is let the Border Patrol agents and the ICE agents do their job. Don’t rein them in and say we’re only going to accept these people, we’re only going to deport these people, give them the full range of authority that they have and let them run them with it.”  

“The president-elect is taking a very serious stand on this,” he said, adding that “he’s got the right people in the right place to handle this” and the effect is already showing in his community.

“You can see it in the people in town, you see it among the deputies, the personnel working for the county, et cetera, et cetera. It’s like OK, we’re finally back to where we can actually relax,” he explained. “We don’t have to bring our kids in every time we hear sirens and gather up the kids when we hear the helicopters fly by. We’ve gotten back some kind of normalcy.”

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Former President Trump speaks to Gov. Greg Abbott during a visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Mayor Douglas Nicholls of Yuma, a town of just under 101,000 residents on the Arizona-Mexico border, told Fox News Digital things are also returning to normal.

Like the Del Rio sector, Yuma also saw a historic surge in illegal immigration under the Biden administration, with over 310,000 crossing in 2022, three times the population of the city. Now, Nicholls said the number of migrants coming across in the Yuma area has fallen to around 50 per day, which he said is fully contained by Border Patrol.

Nicholls said he is optimistic that his city will receive at least the same level of support from the new administration that it did during Trump’s first term.

“Within two weeks [of the first Trump term], the president invited me to the White House. We sat down in the Oval Office with the [Homeland Security] secretary and the three of us had a conversation for about half an hour. I walked out of that meeting with resources and weeks later, we had the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program that dramatically changed the nature of crossers along the border,” said Nicholls, adding that “essentially in about 3 to 5 months… the situation I was concerned about was pretty much put to rest.”

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A Border Patrol agent walks along the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico in Yuma, Arizona, on June 1, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

“So, I really anticipate that same level of engagement,” he explained, adding that he will soon be reaching out and “testing the waters” to make sure Yuma has strong communications with the president and his staff.

“The Yuma area is a vibrant, growing community. It’s got great partnerships across the border, throughout the nation, throughout the world and those things are really what we’re focused on are, the growth opportunities, the ability to take our community to the next level, provide more opportunity for our residents, and really just having that more robust economic environment and flourishing.”

Back in Del Rio, Police Chief Frank Ramirez told Fox News Digital that he is also “definitely hopeful.”

He said that although the current level of illegal immigration is “not as bad as it has been in the past,” city police continue to have to deal with a considerable amount of human smuggling and cartel activity. This continues to take a toll on both the Del Rio Police Department’s resources and officers. 

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Migrants camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas in September. (Rep. August Pfluger)

He said officers in Del Rio are honored to be the “first line of defense,” helping to keep criminal illegal immigrants from getting farther into the country.

“If we can get somebody that doesn’t need to be in the rest of the states here, it’s a double win push, and it’s something that we take very seriously over here, and we enjoy doing,” he said.

Nevertheless, because of these difficulties and the fact that Del Rio is a smaller city that cannot compete with larger city salaries, Ramirez said his department is struggling with recruitment and retention. He said that besides closing the border, communities like his need additional federal funding to compensate officers doing double duty fighting normal crime and illegal migrant crime.

“It’s made it a little bit difficult on us because we’re still trying to take care of the regular problems of the city and, on top of that, take care of immigration issues,” he explained. “Every day you’re rolling the dice. Who’s coming through? Who’s made it across? Are they coming to our city first? And what are they looking for? Are they coming to do something to somebody? Take something from somebody or are they just passing through?”

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Del Rio, Texas, Chief of Police Frank Ramirez (Fox News)

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“So, the key thing that we really need and the thing that we’re kind of looking for is with the grants that would give us salary assistance, something like that would really help the border towns so that we could be competitive with some of the bigger agencies and be able to retain and keep some of these officers over here,” he said.  

“This town is terrific. It’s got great people in it, and I truly mean that when I say it,” he went on. “So, wanting to keep the city safe is really important to me. It’s something personal.”

“Any assistance we can get would be appreciated from any administration. I don’t know what the plans are, but [we are] definitely hopeful and hoping for maybe a little bit more support,” he concluded with a smile.