VOCES

- Starting from Brownsville all the way to Laredo to El Paso, the Texas Mexico border runs over 1000 miles.

The majority of the population in this part of Texas is Mexican American.

- You can look at it as like a, like a point of contact or a point of origin for where all of Mexican culture in the state of Texas, and by some measures, even the nation originates from.

All of those things have a defining characteristic in how people go about their day, their consciousness.

Politically, culturally, this is the border.

The border is more than just a fence line.

It's more than just poor people or people that are desperate trying to cross to make a better life for themselves.

- These are our neighbors, as are family from just across the river.

We're also just so used to people from the United States going to live in Mexico because it's cheaper, and then people from Mexico coming to Laredo to work because they can make more.

And so you see the connection.

You see them going back and forth just trying to live and live peacefully whatever side you're living on or working on.

You know, we see that interchange - America is at a breaking point with record levels of illegal immigration, and today we got a firsthand look at the damage and the chaos the border catastrophe is causing in all of our communities.

- The border has been a hot button issue for many political cycles over decades.

Today it's being described as a violent place of chaos.

- The idea that it is a bloodbath, I think is more of a projection of the, the blood that is eventually spill because of their policies, right?

I think that's more of what they mean when they say blood bath, but they don't want to be upfront about it because nothing that people themselves are doing is causing any blood spill.

But razor wire does walls do?

Guns Do - They just come and look, have some meetings, but they don't actually do real pol policy work, right?

Like, how are we gonna make immigration better, smoother?

What are, you don't see the congressmen that come for the the circus.

You don't actually see them going back and initiating policies.

I think that they just try to hype up whatever looks best - For the media.

I think both sides kind of kick the can down the road and hope that it gets fixed one day, but that's never gonna solve our issues.

And I think until both parties can focus on that, immigration quite literally is a part of the puzzle that we need to solve some of our labor issues.

But I am a Latina at the end of the day, and I am an immigrant who went through the process, but knows how important it's for more people to be able to go through the process.

- Today with a population of over a million, the Rio Grande Valley has a long tradition of political engagement, and most candidates running for local office are Latino.

- There is active organizing here, just like if you go to Austin or San Antonio, which has obviously much larger blocks of organizing.

Well, it, it exists in the Rio Grande Valley too.

They're trying their damnedest to be heard.

- I try and engage younger people.

You know, there's city elections, there's the primary Democratic primary, there's the runoff, and so there's all these different elections that we just gotta promote that it's not just one convincing them about the importance of voting.

It's two, informing them about the opportunities to vote.

- The Rio Grande Valley has historically voted Democrat, but Republicans are actively making inroads in the Latino community.

- You can be very proudly identified with your Mexican ethnicity and your culture, so to speak, and vote Republican.

Interestingly, in the Rio Grande Valley, you know, some of the Trump rallies, they were playing Deno music or, or folks had these banners that said Deno Trumper.

I do think overall what we're seeing is more of folks wanting to be engaged and, and saying, you can't assume that because of my skin color, I'm going to vote a certain way.

- We have to earn those votes.

We have to earn that trust, and the only way to do it is to show up in person and listening to them, and listening to them in English, listening to them in Spanish, in the same way that, that some I think are, are writing off the Rio Grande Valley as turning red, and as Democrats in the past have written it off as, no, this is solidly blue.

You don't have to worry about it.

I, I don't want us to make any of those mistakes going forward.

We have to go out there and contest and, and run and win votes by talking, listening, meeting with people and showing them res the respect that they've earned and that they deserve as our fellow Texans.