Why Southern Border Cities Are Frustrated by the Immigration Debate

The US-Mexico border, as described on The campaign path or seen in the news can easily paint a picture of all border towns as lawless and chaotic.

But the reality is more nuanced, as a CBS News team learned during a 1,600-mile journey from McAllen, Texas, to the California coast.

Laredo, Texas, was ranked one of the safest cities in the state, according to an analysis by CBS News’ data team. Mayor Victor Trevino said his city is not the Wild West he often sees portrayed.

“The cartels, there’s crime and this and that, which is not true,” Trevino told CBS News.

He points to a different kind of boom, with $320 billion worth of microchips manufactured and auto parts from General Motors and Tesla transported annually by train and truck through the Port of Laredo, America’s busiest port of entry.

About 500 miles west, in Presidio, Texas, restaurant owner Hector Armendariz sees people leaving Presidio for better-paying jobs, including his three children.

“They left and aren’t coming back,” Armendariz said. “All our children leave and don’t come back.”

Presidio Mayor John Ferguson says the local economy relies on hundreds of Mexican citizens who cross the border legally every day to work in restaurants or oil fields. Ferguson believes Presidio would be in “serious trouble” if it were more difficult for Mexican residents to get across the border to work.

“As you know, the pandemic where there wasn’t enough workers and things slowed down and … certain sectors kind of dried up,” Ferguson said.

Philip Skinner, mayor of Columbus, New Mexico, says many border towns would shrink without border trade, and that would have unexpected consequences. For example, Skinner explains that there are no dentists in Columbus, but there are about ten dentists just over the border in Puerto Palomas, Mexico. Columbus residents who need dental care will travel to Mexico, Skinner said.

Arizona borders Mexico for more than 350 miles and is a Drug smuggling hotspot. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 66% of fentanyl seized at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2024 occurred in the Tucson sector, which includes all Arizona border ports.

Donald Huish, mayor of Douglas, Arizona, endorsed the Senate’s bipartisan border bill, which was the focus of the presidential campaign. The bill died after criticism from former President Donald Trump.

“It would help us because we would have had more Border Patrol agents,” Huish said. “…I can understand why people didn’t like the entire bill, but why stop talking about it?”

There is frustration across the border, including from Mark Dannels, Sheriff of Arizona’s Cochise County, as he struggles to deal with an influx of drug runners and people smugglers.

Dannels says he’s not necessarily optimistic or pessimistic about Cochise’s future, just uncertain.

“It’s more of an unknown because politics and the country are so divided at the moment,” said Dannels.