EAGLE PASS – President Trump's threatened tariffs, attacks on social programs and draconian immigration policies have unsettled many along the Texas-Mexico border, a region that jolted national voters in decidedly supporting his election.
Traditionally Democratic and overwhelmingly Latino, border communities favored Trump in last November's election, giving him 12 of the Texas borderlands' 14 counties, up from just five in 2016. But now, at the psychologically crucial 100-day mark into Trump's 2nd term, that key support is showing cracks. Many worry that, beyond border security, the president's policies do not always align with the complex binational economic reality of cities from Brownsville to El Paso and beyond.
Nowhere does that seem truer than here in Eagle Pass, seat of Maverick County, which in recent years became the epicenter of the migrant crush on the border, and state and federal efforts to contain it. On some days in the Fall of 2023, tiny Eagle Pass – population 26,000 – saw as many as 4,000 migrants each day. Residents remember the strangers among them, long lines at international bridges and numbers so big that trade and foot traffic, the lifeline of border communities, were halted so CBP could manage the spike in arrivals.
In short, the town was overwhelmed. Trump won Maverick county with 58% of the vote, reversing decades of Democratic political hegemony.
"It was crazy, crazy," recalled Monica J. Cruz, a candidate running for mayor in the May 3 local elections.
Indeed, the city's election campaigns have exposed some fissures in Trump's support. Though all three mayoral candidates are running as nonpartisan, their platforms hinge much on Trump's popularity and promises - even as some say the Democratic Party is pressuring them to openly advocate their political alliances. They all applaud border enforcement, but worry about the economic uncertainty because of tariffs and also favor treating migrants with respect."Going forward, we have to return to our humanity, treating people with dignity," Cruz said.
Walking a thin line
None of the three were openly critical of Trump, or even the Democratic Party. They walk a thin line.
Jessica Rey Ramon, an Army veteran running for a city council seat, said she supports efforts to control the border as no one wants security more than those living on the border.
But Ramon questioned the $11.7 billion Operation Lone Star, the state government's border enforcement effort involving National Guard troops, state troopers, land barriers and buoys in the Rio Grande. Even now, with migrant encounters less than 35 per day, troops and DPS troopers remain. The river continues to be a rampart.
"It's been excessive," Ramon said, given the needs of this border community, and others marked by poverty and inadequate infrastructure. "There needs to be a better balance."
Jesus Casas, another mayoral hopeful in Eagle Pass, worries about the growing angst in his city because of tariffs. "Part of me thinks the president really does have a plan," Casas said. "That he and the administration know what they are doing" he said.
"But if that's so, it's very important that they communicate the plan to us," Casas said, as he and his competitors politicked outside a gym that serves as the city's lone early voting center. "My concern going into 100 days is tariffs and our relationship with Mexico and Canada. We are all part of North America, and we need to take care of the neighborhood."
The third mayoral candidate, Aaron Valdez, referring to the much larger city just across the border, added: "Mexico, Piedras Negras, is our lifeline, our blood. They are more than neighbors. They are family. When they hurt, we hurt even more. I'm worried about the economic uncertainty."
Erosion of Latino support
Texas accounted for $540 billion of the nearly $900 billion in U.S.-Mexico trade clocked last year, according to U.S. trade figures.
Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist, said strong support related to security persists for Trump across Texas and the borderland. Yet Jones notes signs of "erosion of support over more draconian efforts like the deportation of children, U.S. citizens," and deepening worries about Trump's trade policies.
Those attitudes are consistent with a flurry of polls last week (April 21-25th) that show Trump's approval ratings sagging on most issues, except for border security. A Fox News poll shows 55% of respondents give him high marks on border security. Yet, only 38%approve of Trump on the economy, followed by just 33% on tariffs.
"The more we see the impact on jobs and prices, the more you can expect that erosion to grow, especially along the border," Jones said. "Americans vote with their pocketbooks. Americans will always choose cheaper products over rhetoric."
Separately, a poll by the Pew Research Center shows Trump has a 27% approval rating among Latinos, a "complete collapse among the fastest growing group of GOP supporters," wrote GOP political consultant Mike Madrid on Bluesky.
Cracks run from Brownsville to El Paso – communities where the federal government plays an outsize role, employing thousands in key jobs, including the Border Patrol. The border has become a prop, a key magnet for politicians looking for distractions, a way to shape narratives to their liking. Last week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, facing renewed scrutiny in Washington, dropped in unannounced in Democratically-led New Mexico to visit troops on the border, standing in front of a tank. TV cameras rolled.
When the "theater" is installed, it becomes hard to dismantle, said Jessie F. Fuentes, who has been fighting the state to allow access to the river in Eagle Pass.
"Once you let them inside your house, it's tough to kick them out. They just won't leave," he said.
Democrats rattled
Border Democrats have been rattled, including U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar. The threat is so serious she's dedicating more time at home in her district.
"It has been heartbreaking to see many recent immigrants applaud the Trump administration's mass deportations," Escobar told a group of reporters from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. "We've seen Latino members of our community applaud the militarization of our border without understanding the impact on their own civil liberties…that is the real challenge."
Her constituents include Ron Barrio, an El Pasoan and customs broker at a cattle-crossing just over the state line in New Mexico. He's a self-described "diehard" Trump supporter.
In March, as dust storms howled across the desert, he and colleagues worried as Trump declared a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and then rescinded them. The tariff placed on Mexican goods disrupted operations, leading to a steep decline in imports. Barrio, who helps move cattle between the U.S. and Mexico, said he lost more than $70,000.
A large Trump flag that Barrio displayed inside his office didn't sit well with some of his clients, one of whom lost $100,000 in just those three days, his total 2024 profits. Barrio said he quietly rolled up the MAGA flag and put it out of sight."I need to give him (Trump) some time and 100 days is not enough," he said. "If by the end of the year things don't look better, I'll consider my alternatives."
Alternatives? A new job?" he mumbled.
Daniel Manzanares, director of the Santa Teresa International Export and Import Livestock Crossing in New Mexico, where Barrio works, was less optimistic. "A year? The way things are going, we'll be done by then," he said.
Surviving Trump moment
In the Rio Grande Valley, which Trump won, weeks after he took office, people protested immigration raids at local businesses The demonstrations highlight how this region, like other border communities, is uniquely affected by Trump's policies.
"The ethos of the Valley for a long time has been economic vibrancy, largely through immigration and through robust bilateral trade," said Alvaro Corral, a political science professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, in Brownsville. "Whether it's tariffs, whether it's deportations, I think that the direction of the Trump administration really is anathema to what the Rio Grande Valley has been for the last 30 years."
In Del Rio, the end of the migrant rush ripples through the economy, social service agencies and political jockeying. Contract buses that once shuttled migrants away from the border stand idle. The Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition's migrant processing center sits empty. Only three migrant encounters were reported in the county on one April day. Hotel rooms are again available–sans price-gouging. And a half-built wall remains unfinished, something that irks Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez. The absence of large numbers of migrants might prove temporary, cautioned Martinez, a Democrat who eked a tight victory last November.
How he won in a divided Republican-Democrat community is a lesson for Democrats elsewhere in surviving the Trump political moment, he said.
"You have to know the people you represent," said Martinez, who walked the aisle of H-E-B stores, Whataburgers and coffee shops.. "Make sure they understand you will never abandon them. Hold your ground and stand for what you believe in. It's that simple."
This story was co-published by KTEP News with Puente News Collaborative , a bilingual nonprofit newsroom, convener and funder dedicated to high-quality, fact-based news and information from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Freelance reporter Gaige Davila contributed from the Rio Grande Valley. Dudley Althaus edited the story.
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