DONNA, Texas — Many of the activists that we spoke with were hoping that Governor Abbott and former President Donald Trump would show up at their townhall meeting where they outlined what they wanted to see along the border.
A handful of the 8,000 members of the LUPE organization, a valley based activist group, held a town hall meeting in San Juan in response to the one Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump were having in nearby Edinburg.
"We know Abbott and Trump came here to the valley to have their own townhall and to portray this is a criminal zone area to justify more criminalization and more border walls to justify arresting thousands of migrants and putting them in the local prisons," Daniel Diaz with LUPE said.
Denise Palacios is with Texas Rising. It’s another organization in the valley that focuses on getting young people involved in their community and in the political process. She was here for this town hall meeting as well and had plenty to say about the governor’s wall.
"As valley residents, we are all very frustrated and concerned that our governor has decided to come down and talk about the wall and talking about criminalizing immigrants because most of us come from an immigrant community," Palacios said.
"We would like to see the governor talking about Medicaid and protecting our rights to vote.”
Now, the man who heads the Texas Sheriff’s Regional Alliance along our Gulf Coast fully backs Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to finish the Trump wall.
We zoomed with Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback as he was embedded with Governor Abbott and Donald Trump at their town hall meeting at the Edinburg airport. We couldn’t get in because state troopers had all the roads blocked off.
"It was great to see President Trump come down here to Texas today," he said. "Huge amount of support for him his policies for the last two years saw the most stable border in Texas history.”
Sheriff Louderback explains that the members of his alliance which include the sheriff’s in Kleberg and Refugio counties are constantly having to deal with the cartels immigrant smuggling operations.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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