Border leaders say their communities are returning to ‘normalcy’ ahead of Trump’s inauguration

Southern border leaders tell Fox News Digital that despite rumors of a sudden surge, the number of illegal immigrants is down and their communities are returning to a sense of “normalcy” ahead of The second inauguration of President-elect Trump this month.

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

Illegal border crossings in Coe’s area have skyrocketed during the Biden administration, reaching 480,000 in 2022. The town of Eagle Pass, with a population of only about 28,000, has become a hub the legal battle between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and federal authorities because the state tried to break the record level of border crossings.

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Under The easy border policy of the Biden administrationCoe said people in his county had to deal with huge financial losses and a constant sense of danger and uncertainty. He also said there has been a dramatic increase in dangerous pursuits for law enforcement in his county.

“In a career, a law enforcement officer may have 10 or 15 good assignments after a 25 or 30 year career. [In] 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 went from one or two searches a year to 250 searches a year… So yeah, it was total chaos.”

But now that Trump has taken office again on Jan. 20, Coe said he’s “very optimistic” about the future.

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

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

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

“The president-elect is taking a very serious position on this,” he said, adding that he “has the right people in the right place to solve this” and that the effect is already being seen in his community.

You can see it in the people in the city, you can see it among the representatives, the staff who work for the county, and so on, and so on. It’s like OK, we’re finally back to where we can actually relax, he explained. . “We don’t have to bring our kids every time we hear sirens and collect our kids when we hear a helicopter fly by. We’ve got some kind of normalcy back.”

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Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Mayor Douglas Nicholls of Yuma, a city of just under 101,000 on the Arizona-Mexico border, told Fox News that digital things are also getting back to normal.

Like Sector Del Rio, Yuma also saw a historic increase in illegal immigration under the Biden administrationwith more than 310,000 crossings in 2022, which is three times more than the city’s population. Now, Nicholls said the number of migrants coming into the Yuma area has dropped to about 50 a day, which he said has been completely curbed by the Border Patrol.

Nicholls said he is optimistic his city will receive at least the same level of support from the new administration as 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 [Homeland Security] the secretary and the three of us talked for about half an hour. I walked away from that resource meeting and weeks later, we had the ‘Stay in Mexico’ program that dramatically changed the nature of those crossing the border,” Nicholls said, adding that “basically in about 3 to 5 months … the situation that the one I was worried about is pretty much shut down.”

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“So I really expect that same level of engagement,” he explained, adding that he will reach out soon and “test the water” to make sure Yuma has strong communication with the president and his staff.

“Yuma County is a vibrant, growing community. It has great partnerships across the border, across the nation, around the world, and those things are what we’re really focused on, the growth opportunities, the ability to take our community to the next level, provide more opportunities for our residents, and actually have that stronger economic environment and boom.”

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

He said that while the current level of illegal immigration “isn’t as bad as it was in the past,” the city’s police still have to deal with a large amount of people-smuggling and cartel activity. This continues to take a toll on the resources and officers of the Del Rio Police Department.

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He said Del Rio police officers are honored to be the “first line of defense,” helping to prevent criminal illegal immigrants from entering the country further.

“If we can get someone who doesn’t have to be in other states here, that’s a double win, and it’s something we take very seriously here and enjoy doing,” he said.

Even so, because of these difficulties and the fact that Del Rio is a smaller city that can’t compete with higher city wages, Ramirez said his department struggles with recruitment and retention. He said that in addition to closing the border, communities like his need additional federal funding to compensate officers who are doing double duty to fight both regular and illegal immigrant crime.

“It made it a little difficult for us because we’re still trying to take care of the regular problems of the city and, on top of that, take care of the immigration issues,” he explained. “Every day you roll the dice. Who is passing by? Who has crossed? Are they the first to come to our town? And what are they looking for? Are they coming to do something to someone? To take something from someone or just passing by?”

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“So the key thing that we really need and the thing that we’re kind of looking for is with grants that would help us with the salaries, 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 retain some of those officer here,” he said.

“This city is great. It’s got great people, and I mean it,” he continued. “So, wanting the city to be safe is very important to me. It’s something personal.”

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