‘Lack of Support From the Federal Government’: Democrats Still Changing to GOP Along the Border Over Immigration, Border Security

‘Lack of Support From the Federal Government’: Democrats Still Changing to GOP Along the Border Over Immigration, Border Security

The shift to the GOP, especially among Hispanics, has been widely discussed.

• Latina Republican Mayra Flores Flips Southern Texas House Seat in Region That Hasn’t Gone GOP in 100 Years
• More Than One Million Voters Have Switched From Democrat to Republican Over the Last Year
• Hispanic Republican Women Make Big Gains in Texas GOP Primary
• Blue Texas? Not if Hispanic Republicans in South Texas Keep Winning Elections

One of the factors driving the shift is the immigration crisis at the border.

Members of the Biden administration keep saying the border is secure, but people can see that’s simply not true. The lack of support drives Democrats to the Republican Party along the Texas-Mexico border.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Along the Texas-Mexico border, GOP enthusiasm mounts as Democrats defect over immigration concerns

In 2014, the percentage of registered voters casting ballots in the Republican primary in Terrell County was 12%. By 2022, that percentage had more than doubled — with 31% of the county’s registered voters casting ballots in the GOP primary compared to 10% in the Democratic primary. It was the first time in at least eight years that Republicans voting in the Terrell County primary outnumbered Democrats.

The shift in allegiance is being replicated across the Texas-Mexico border and is encouraging for Republicans who are campaigning on border security and making a big push to win over Hispanic voters. It is also concerning for Democrats who have long held sway in these border and South Texas communities.

In 15 counties along the Texas-Mexico border, participation in Republican primaries has grown steadily since 2014. That year, 23,243 voters participated in a Republican primary, accounting for about 2% of voters. This year, 54,085 voters cast ballots in the GOP primary, making up 4% of voters.

While Democrats voting in primaries still far outnumber Republicans in those counties, the trendline is moving in the opposite direction. In 2014, more than 122,000 people turned out for a Democratic primary in border counties, accounting for 11% of voters. But after nearly 214,000 voters cast ballots in the 2020 Democratic primary, that number fell to 131,189 this year, making up less than 10% of voters in the region.

Dale Lynn Carruthers, a Terrell County judge, is now a Republican after she witnessed migrants on her property and heard other ranchers complain:

Ranchers complained that large groups of migrants were entering through their border-adjacent land, cutting high fences, which risked setting their animals loose, damaging the water lines that supply their vast ranches in a semi-arid climate and making it harder for them to tend to their livestock.

On her family’s 17,000-acre ranch, Carruthers saw the same problems. Visitors who came to hunt wild game started stumbling upon the bodies of migrants who apparently died of heat while making the journey. One day, her husband was outside feeding the animals when he saw state police arresting a group of 49 migrants. They worried about the safety of their family.

Carruthers also switched parties when she realized the Democrats weren’t listening to the people’s concerns about immigration and the border: “Seeing the lack of support from the federal government has really impacted the community and they’re looking and leaning towards the Republican Party.”

In one Texas community, that problem has reached a tipping point.

FOX News reports:

Texas border town requests refrigerators to store migrant bodies after drownings overwhelm mortuaries

The surge in migrant drownings in Eagle Pass has “overwhelmed” local mortuaries and funeral homes, requiring the border town’s fire department to request refrigerators to store bodies, the agency’s chief told Fox News.

“There are so many bodies being recovered that the morticians are asking for assistance,” Eagle Pass Fire Department Chief Manuel Mello III, said. “I had never seen so many drownings like we’re seeing right now.”

“We do a body recovery daily,” Mello continued. “It’s very traumatic for my personnel.”

The Del Rio sector of the southern border has seen over 376,000 migrant encounters since October 2021, averaging out to nearly 1,100 per day, according to Customs and Border Protection. Across the entire border, there have been 1.8 million encounters over the past 11 months…

“Sometimes you’ll be walking in an area where the water will never go above your knee, but all of a sudden you’ll have a drop of about 10, 12 feet,” Mello said of the RIo Grande. “If you’re carrying a baby, you’re going to go down 10 or 12 feet with that baby.”

Here’s Kamala Harris just days ago, saying the border is secure.

Chuck Todd: Would you call the border secure?

Kamala Harris: Yes.

Chuck Todd: We’re going to have 2 million people cross this border for the first time ever. You're confident this border is secure?

Kamala Harris: Yes, but we have problems because Trump pic.twitter.com/m0KlwZSVfV

— Media Research Center (@theMRC) September 12, 2022

It’s just more gaslighting.

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