Some locals responded to the migrants with hate. But unlike larger border communities – for instance, the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, Democratic strongholds – voters around Del Rio went for Donald Trump in 2020. Much like other areas along the Texas-Mexico border, the vast majority of residents are Hispanic or Latino. People cross the International Bridge every day, on their morning commute.Ī Texas department of public safety highway patrol vehicle blocks the road leading to to the border crossing in Del Rio on 24 September. The hot air buzzes with Spanish and English. It is a dusty town, filled with restaurant chains and budget hotels. The small, poor city of roughly 36,000 sits deep in the heart of west Texas. “Nobody wants to hear your racist nonsense in Del Rio. On Thursday, an aggressive heckler shut down the Rev Al Sharpton as the African American civil rights leader tried to give a press conference after a tour of the camp. Tensions flared as the overwhelmed community cratered along deep social and economic fault lines, laid bare over the last few days. Their border closed, choking off business. “I don’t want to say animals, either … they’re a different breed, in my opinion.”Īfter as many as 15,000 migrants, many of them Black Haitians, set up camp under Del Rio’s International Bridge to await processing by immigration officials, the city’s residents were thrust under a worldwide microscope. “They’re not clean people – not saying that in a bad way,” Kimberly said.
Kimberly’s dad did not want her to be alone in a parking lot anymore, worried migrants might “get” her.
When Carmelita took the trash out, her mom watched to make sure she stayed safe. In what felt like a war zone, both teenagers learned to fear the desperate refugees who fled to their city. They had been living on the margins of a humanitarian emergency for days, since thousands of migrants and asylum seekers trudged across the Rio Grande River and established a sprawling encampment at the edge of Del Rio. She and her friend Kimberly, both 16, were studying for school outside Starbucks, minutes from the Mexico border.
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