'Listen to us': Border mayors reveal what they want to see from next president
Mayors in Arizona and Texas said every section of the border has different needs, making it imperative that the next president visit the U.S.-Mexico border.
An Arizona rancher whose remote property sits on the very end of the incomplete southern border wall tells Fox News Digital that he's encountered thousands of illegals making their way into the United States under the Biden-Harris administration and has concerns that many of them appear to have ties to cartels or have come from the Middle East.
He is calling out Vice President Harris' tenure as President Biden's point person on immigration after he says cameras show hundreds of illegals slipping around the end of the border wall and into the U.S. on a daily basis.
"She is the border czar, she's always been the border czar, and she's been a total failure at preventing people from coming into our country," said Jim Chilton, an Arizona rancher whose 50,000-acre property includes the incomplete end of former President Trump's border wall.
"For the last six months, we've been averaging about 100 people a day coming from Mexico around the end of the wall," he told Fox News Digital. And those are the ones who aren't hiding. Others, escorted by cartel smugglers, wear camouflage and carpet shoes and try to avoid detection, he said.
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Vice President Harris visits the El Paso central processing center in Texas, near the border between the United States and Mexico, on June 25, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
"We've not seen a decrease in them either," he said. "On Saturday, I ran into a group of about a dozen. They appeared to be from the Middle East, and they were in bad shape."
He gave them water and reported the encounter to the Samaritans nonprofit group, which also called Border Patrol.
Still images from motion-activated surveillance cameras show groups of camouflaged people sneaking onto an Arizona rancher's property after making their way around an incomplete portion of the southern border wall in May 2024. (Courtesy of Jim Chilton)
"Vice President Harris, you have not secured the border. I've heard you say it was secure. It's not secure. And we need to secure the border at the international border. We're a sovereign country."
Chilton has five motion-activated cameras spread out over his ranch – just one for every 10,000 acres.
"Since Biden was elected and took office, I've had 3,550 people imaged on my motion-activated cameras," he said.
Those people are seen trying to conceal themselves wearing camouflage clothes and strips of carpet tied to their shoes, he said. Separately, he estimated another 5,000 people in April alone crossed his property without trying to hide.
Still images from motion-activated surveillance cameras show groups of camouflaged people sneaking onto an Arizona rancher's property after making their way around an incomplete portion of the southern border wall in May 2024. (Courtesy of Jim Chilton)
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While Harris and her supporters have distanced herself from the crisis at the border and rejected the label "border czar," the House of Representatives officially rebuked her last week.
"We've become a dumping ground for the world, and we're not going to take it anymore."
Trump, speaking at a campaign rally last Wednesday, called her "the architect of the border invasion" and blamed the current administration for record illegal immigration, pointing to a chart that showed historic lows at the end of his presidency – and an all-time high this past March under Biden and Harris.
"She inherited the best border in U.S. history and turned it into the worst border in the world," he said, adding that the current administration halted border wall construction, defended sanctuary city policies and put an end to his "remain in Mexico" policy.
Trump cited a recent Homeland Security warning about the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, targeting police for assassination, as well as a number of high-profile crimes against women and girls around the country, including the recent slaying of Houston 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was sexually assaulted, strangled and thrown off a bridge. Police arrested two illegals from Venezuela in connection with the murder.
"If I am elected, on day 1 we will begin the largest deportation in the world," Trump said.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 31, 2024. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
For relatives of victims like Jocelyn and for everyday citizens like Chilton, evidence of the border failure is a part of daily life.
Chilton noted that it can take more than 45 minutes to an hour for deputies to respond to his remote property in an emergency.
"We have to defend ourselves the way my ancestors had to defend themselves because we have no real law enforcement," he said. "And I am outraged. I have five and a half miles of the international border, and Trump's wall came out five miles. The end of the wall is on my ranch."
Still images from motion-activated surveillance cameras show groups of camouflaged people sneaking onto an Arizona rancher's property after making their way around an incomplete portion of the southern border wall in May 2024. (Courtesy of Jim Chilton)
Now, he said, "cartel scouts" prowl the mountains, guiding people in to avoid detection. They could be bringing in terrorists and criminals, he said.
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Separately, "economic immigrants" are also arriving in droves, but they don't try to hide, he said. They come into the U.S. around the end of the wall and hope to run into Border Patrol on purpose.
"The economic immigrants wanting to be apprehended are from all over the world," Chilton said. "I think the dozen that I ran into last Saturday were from the Middle East. They looked Syrian to me … all over the world lots of people from Africa, Bangladesh, India. It's just unbelievable."
Fox News Digital reached out to Harris for comment.
Fox News' Brooke Curto contributed to this report.
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