On the Texas border, Trump's deportation drive galvanises midterm voters
Residents of the Rio Grande Valley honour victims of immigration enforcement and weigh a midterm vote shaped by mass deportations, economic losses and shifting loyalties.
At a glance
- Rio Grande Valley residents held a Day of the Dead vigil days before the November 3 midterms, honouring deportation victims.
- An ACLU of Texas poll found 64 percent of local respondents felt ICE tactics have gone too far and 53 percent said enforcement made life harder.
- Trump won Hidalgo County in 2024 after losing it by 17 points in 2020; a Caminos Institute report estimates the region lost $180.6m.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Days before the US midterm election on November 3, residents and organisers in the Rio Grande Valley gathered in the Texas border city of Brownsville for a Day of the Dead vigil honouring people killed in immigration enforcement and detention, as President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign reshapes local politics.
Community organiser Mark Anthony Vasquez, 52, said the atmosphere around ICE detentions and raids left people feeling there was no real due process. "What is it that we can do to move together and build together to try to make it past this, and make that change that we seek?" he said.
At a bookstore panel on border and immigration policy, 24-year-old Juliana Garcia sought advice on finding a lawyer able to navigate rapidly shifting policies. Her aunt, a well-known figure in the nearby border town of Progreso, was deported within 36 hours of being called to a Department of Homeland Security hearing, where she learned she had missed a court date and, under stress, signed a voluntary deportation form. "People are waking up, and they're remembering that politics ... it's going to impact you every day," Garcia told Al Jazeera.
Shifting loyalties
Views on immigration are complex in the Rio Grande Valley, a subtropical region of southeast Texas with about 1.5 million residents. Discontent over increased border crossings under President Joe Biden has been credited in part with Trump's 2024 success in the once reliably Democratic area: he won Hidalgo County by three points over Kamala Harris, after Biden's 17-point win in 2020, and took neighbouring Cameron County by about five points, despite a 13-point loss four years earlier.
Voter Jose Arizpe, 40, called the past two years a "positive change". Martin Torres, 55, voted Democratic but said domestic enforcement and its effect on the local workforce had soured his view; a Caminos Institute report estimated the region lost $180.6m in economic activity.
Enforcement concerns
The US Supreme Court lifted a lower-court order barring immigration officials from considering "apparent race or ethnicity" and language spoken when on patrol, which rights groups say allows racial profiling, and a Texas law lets local officials stop people they suspect entered the country illegally. George Castorena, 46, said he saw "a lot of discrimination going on" and was voting for change.
An ACLU of Texas poll found only 34 percent of local respondents felt enforcement by local and state officials had made their communities safer, 53 percent said it made life harder without improving safety and 64 percent felt ICE tactics had gone too far. Polls show Democrat Bobby Pulido leading Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz, and Democrat Vicente Gonzalez leading Republican Eric Flores, in two Rio Grande Valley congressional districts.
Midterms offer only incremental change: Democratic control of the House would at best block further enforcement funding and open investigations, while the Senate could hinge on the Texas race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. A new governor could end Greg Abbott's use of state agencies in federal enforcement, though Democrat Gina Hinojosa would face a likely Republican legislature.
Pastor Eli Lara of McAllen's New Life Family Church, who supports Trump's policies, said locals were dismayed by how widely the administration has targeted undocumented people, noting a congregant with a past drug conviction was deported. Garcia pointed to the assault of a 17-year-old by immigration agents in Alamo and the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston in July 2026.
Source: Al Jazeera.
Questions and answers
- What is happening on the Texas border ahead of the US midterms?
- Voters in the Rio Grande Valley are weighing Trump's mass deportation campaign before the November 3 midterm election, with vigils and panels drawing attention to enforcement and detention.
- How much has Trump's immigration policy cost the Rio Grande Valley?
- A Caminos Institute report estimated the region has lost $180.6m in economic activity because of the administration's immigration policies, including in construction and restaurants.
- What did the ACLU of Texas poll find about immigration enforcement?
- Only 34 percent of local respondents said enforcement by local and state officials made their communities safer, 53 percent said it made life harder without improving safety and 64 percent said ICE tactics had gone too far.
