Former President Donald Trump returned to the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday.
He was invited to attend a border security briefing hosted by Governor Greg Abbott in Weslaco.
The last time Trump visited the Rio Grande Valley was in January, when he used the final trip of his presidency to autograph incomplete border wall.
Now Governor Greg Abbott has pledged to continue wall construction in Texas using state dollars and a crowdfunding campaign.
Abbott also issued a disaster declaration for counties along the border in response to a recent rise in migration in the area.
At the border security briefing in Weslaco, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos was the only local official invited from the Rio Grande Valley — the most heavily-crossed area on the U.S.-Mexico border.
All four counties in the valley refused to issue local disaster declarations at Abbott’s request. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño told Rio Grande Guardian that there are neither the trespassing complaints nor the jail space to justify Abbott’s plan to aggressively apprehend migrants.
Immigration advocacy organizations say they see Abbott’s recent announcement about the wall and disaster declaration at the border as symbolic and politically motivated. Fox News personality Sean Hannity is scheduled to hold atown hall in the area Wednesday afternoon, featuring Abbott and Trump.
La Union Del Pueblo Entero, an immigration advocacy group based in the Rio Grande Valley, held a community town hall on Wednesday morning in response to Abbott and Trump's border visit.
“All four Rio Grande Valley counties are out of this Abbott disaster declaration. The county judges listened to border residents. They looked at the facts and unanimously agreed that there is no border crisis,” said LUPE organizing director Danny Diaz at the town hall. “So this begs the question — why is Abbott and Trump even here today if not to use our homes and people as props for their own political greed?”
Lupe was joined by more than 20 border-based advocacy organizations from El Paso to Brownsville. Their missions range from labor rights to humanitarian aid, and voting rights.
This story will be updated.
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