Laredo has been famous since the cult novel On the Road, in which Jack Kerouac stages the passage between Mexico and the United States. But in Laredo, today, there are mainly several cen…

Good morning from Laredo, where the wall between the United States and Mexico is still debated

Audio 04:25

A truck driver goes through new inspection booths for northbound commercial traffic from Mexico to the United States at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas.

Friday, May 6, 2011 Photo AP / Eric Gay

By: Thomas Harms Follow

9 min

Laredo has been famous since the cult novel On the Road, in which Jack Kerouac stages the passage between Mexico and the United States.

But in Laredo, today, there are mainly several detention centers for asylum seekers and one subject dominates the discussions: the wall wanted by Donald Trump.

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It was a 2016 promise. Donald Trump wanted to build a wall with Mexico at all costs, especially in Laredo.

But here, the majority of the 260,000 inhabitants are against this wall.

Juan Ruiz is part of the No Border Wall coalition and he goes door to door to distribute his flyers which explain that to fight against the wall, you have to go and vote: "

This is clearly one of the challenges of the presidential election. .
We just want to educate voters, that what we see here will no longer exist and that there will be a wall that will block all view

A few miles away, we find ourselves in what we imagine to be Texas: a vast, arid territory, free horses, cattle.

At least until the wall is built.

Because for Joseph Hein, this marks the end of his breeding of appaloosa horses: “

What was planned before Trump was elected was to erect a tower which would have a camera that could zoom and with an infrared system. to see the night.
When they told me they were going to do this, I was 100% okay, because it's not a problem for the wild animals and the livestock.
Animals could always have gone near the river to drink.

Last Friday, October 9, the Trump administration was dismissed by a federal appeals court over the right to use military funds to build the wall.

Now he must find another source of funds, or wait for a Supreme Court ruling on the matter.

In Laredo, there are also three detention centers for migrants who apply for asylum in the United States.

But since the start of the pandemic, the border has been virtually closed.

Only essential workers are allowed to cross.

So no migrant.

And according to Pastor Michael Smith, who helps many refugees in the city, this border policy is having a huge economic impact on detention camps in the region.

“

They are paid according to the number of people who sleep in their detention centers.
And there is no one

!
We are talking about companies that generate millions of dollars, and there they are going to lose a lot.
So they are going to want the borders to reopen, in order to be able to lock up migrants.
But I'm afraid the Trump administration doesn't want that, and instead wants those arrested to be tried and deported soon.
If you live in Laredo, you know that this border community lives off Mexican consumers and customers.
You can go downtown, it looks like a ghost town.

Will this economic situation have an impact on the presidential vote?

By family tradition, Hispanics, who make up 96% of the county's population, vote Democrats.

But since 2016, Republicans say that has changed.

“

I was a Democrat all my life,” says

Rosa Linda Palacios, a pro-Trump activist.

We were raised to be Democrats.
We became Republicans when Trump arrived.
I am for the wall, because I grew up here in Laredo, we are a family of 16

and my sister was kidnapped two months ago by an illegal migrant.
Thanks to the border guards, she was saved.
But if you only knew what's going on here.
That's why we're supporting the wall.

A security argument that the president of the local Democratic Party, Sylvia Bruni, does not understand: “

You know, we are one of the safest cities in all of Texas.
All the studies say that illegal immigrants do not swim by.
Drugs and rapists either.
They come by plane or by car.
These are the facts.
I see people in the Democrats' HQ who are 50, 60, who had never voted in their lives.
But there, they are afraid of what can happen with this man.

The last time a Republican presidential candidate had a majority of the votes in Laredo County was in 1912.

Good morning ... - Good morning by Laredo, where the wall between the United States and Mexico is still debated

Good morning from Laredo, where the wall between the United States and Mexico is still debated

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