Mayor Jaime Escobar Jr. would often be sitting at his desk inside his modest city hall office when movement outside his window caught his attention — one person, sometimes several, sprinting across the historic downtown plaza in the small border city of Roma, Texas. At other times, the plaza would be filled with hundreds of people, many arriving as families after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States.
Stairs at the river’s edge help migrants climb a steep rocky embankment, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are frequently waiting. Most migrants, Escobar says, would surrender immediately and formally begin the asylum process under federal immigration law. “It wouldn’t necessarily happen every single day … I’d come to see it a few times a week at least,” Escobar told CBC News.
He says crossings steadily increased during the Biden administration, which he attributes to what he views as a long-broken immigration enforcement system lacking accountability. “We’re families of immigrants and we’re proud to say that, but we also believe that we have to have law and order,” Escobar said. “There wasn’t very much accountability … we did have open borders.”
Since Donald Trump’s re-election, Escobar says illegal crossings through Roma have dropped sharply, crediting stricter federal border security and immigration policy enforcement. “It’s night and day, it really is,” he said.
Escobar is a split-ticket voter who supported Trump at the top of the ballot while voting Democratic in down-ballot races. One year into Trump’s second term, he remains satisfied, one of several voters CBC News spoke with while reporting in southwest Texas. Starr County, home to Roma and several border communities, flipped Republican in 2024 for the first time in 132 years, driven largely by Trump’s promises on immigration reform and economic affordability.
Trump’s growing support among Latino voters played a decisive role in the county, where more than 90 percent of residents identify as Hispanic. Under Biden, inflation hit hard in Starr County, one of the poorest regions in the country, where the median household income is roughly $38,000 and economic mobility remains limited.
According to CBP data, apprehensions along the southern border have fallen to a 55-year low, averaging 279 per day compared with more than 5,000 daily during peak periods of the previous administration. For the fiscal year ending in September, just over 237,000 people were apprehended, down sharply from the prior four-year average of more than 1.8 million, with most fiscal 2025 apprehensions occurring during the final months of Biden’s term.
Some residents say they have also noticed fewer drug trafficking incidents. Jorge Bezan, 57, who lives in a rural area of Starr County, said traffickers once drove recklessly through his community. “With their loaded trucks, they come up here on the roads — they crash, crash into properties,” he said. “I’m afraid when my son has kids, or I have my grandchildren … someone is going to run them over.”
Bezan, another split voter who supported Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, says those incidents “stopped completely.” While acknowledging that Trump’s immigration rhetoric has “insulted” Hispanic communities, Bezan says he stands by his vote. “Biden came in and everything went to hell,” he said.
Trump’s immigration policies and mass deportation efforts remain deeply troubling to critics. Mindy Garza, a retired teacher who voted for Kamala Harris, said she is alarmed by ICE enforcement practices. “The way ICE is treating Hispanic people, just because they look a certain way … they’re being attacked,” she said while eating breakfast at a family-owned café in Rio Grande City.
Becky Garza, who runs the restaurant opened by her grandfather in 1939, declined to discuss politics but said running a small business has become increasingly difficult amid inflation and economic instability. “Oh my god,” she said. “The prices on things go up and down, up and down, every minute of the day.” She added, “We’re looking at cutting hours again. It’s really been slow. The economy itself is just not helping us any at all.”
Diana Bacela, who lives on a fixed income with her husband, says she does not expect Trump’s economic policy to improve conditions for working-class families. “He doesn’t want to help the lower class, the middle class. He’s doing it for the upper class,” she said.
Political divisions remain sharp. At a local barbecue competition, Ludivina Garcia, 80, said bluntly, “He’s a piece of shit. Poor people are suffering, old people like me.” Garcia, who voted for Harris, believes voters were misled by Trump’s economic promises. “I can live on bread, potatoes and beans — but the kids can’t,” she said.
Others remain supportive. “I’m satisfied,” said Beto Garza, a working father, while serving ribs to passersby. “I see changes.” Retired border patrol officer Sergio Ace Rosales, 75, echoed that view. “I love everything … chasing the illegal aliens back, because that was my job back in the old days,” he said, adding, “there’s nothing I can say about the old man, he’s doing great.”
Escobar acknowledges that affordability remains a concern but says some indicators have improved. “Locally we’ve seen some positive effects, but not to the extent that we’d hope for by now,” he said.
One year after the election, Starr County reflects a nation still deeply divided, with border security, immigration law enforcement, economic policy and cost-of-living pressures shaping how voters judge Trump’s return to power — and whether they believe his promises will ultimately deliver.
