Texas accounted for roughly one-third of all ICE arrests nationwide in July 2026 – a larger share than any other state – according to government figures obtained by the Deportation Data Project.
“They said we’re gonna seek out, capture, detain and deport the worst of the worst,” Snipes said in his sermon. “Well, we’re here on the border and the cartel is the worst-of-the-worst. So we thought, well, that’s a good thing.
“But it turned out, you can hear almost every day, some poor guy going to work and they stop him and detain him and start a big fight.”
After the service, two members of the congregation stopped to chat. “We’re educators, and we have a lot of students that are having to go back because their parents are getting deported,” one said.
“The cruelty that we’re seeing – I think that’s turning the tide, at least I hope so,” their friend added.
Turning the tide politically is what Democrats are hoping they can do in Texas in the midterm elections on 3 November. But that will not be easy.
This stretch of the Rio Grande was once one of the busiest crossing points on the US-Mexico border. Under former President Joe Biden, hundreds of thousands of migrants came through here, with more than two and a half million apprehensions recorded in a single year.
Trump promised to stop these illegal crossings during his 2024 election campaign, and in large parts he has delivered.
Border crossings are now at their lowest level in decades. And it was that promise which in part drove Trump’s astonishingly high level of support in the state, taking around 55% of Hispanic votes in Texas alone – a record for a Republican presidential candidate.
Javier Villalobos is the Republican Mayor of McAllen, one of the biggest cities in the Rio Grande Valley. He expects Republicans will find it tough this time around, but credits the Trump administration with stemming the border problem.
“I remember I put out a video… thanking the administration for immediately securing the border. That was great,” he said. “And I think generally most people are okay with the deportation of criminals, violent people, or people that really are not productive at all.”
But if you start deporting people that are productive and law-abiding, that is where the problem is, he added.
