A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
One important voting issue where the governor of Texas has huge influence is the southern border. Border Patrol encounters with people crossing from Mexico have fallen to the lowest level in more than 50 years during the Trump administration. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star has bust over a hundred thousand migrants to cities such as New York and Chicago. We went to the border city of Laredo to meet someone who's seen the ebb and flow of migration up close.
Hi. Nice to meet you.
MIKE SMITH: A Martínez?
MARTÍNEZ: Yes, A Martínez.
Mike Smith is a Methodist pastor and director of the Holding Institute.
SMITH: Holding Institute has been around since 1880. It was founded as a seminary and specifically a school to accept children of color, meaning Hispanics and Latinos. And over the years, we've evolved. We're a community center that also has a shelter, right? So in our shelter, any given day, you'll see a mix of local residents, migrants and others who are just looking for a place to stay the night.
MARTÍNEZ: We're talking in the car as Smith guides us towards the border. As the sun sets, we arrive at a park on the banks of the Rio Grande. Six Border Patrol pickups line the water's edge. Their high beams and spotlights scan the river and the thick brush on the Mexican side.
SMITH: That is cartel-controlled area. The later you wait at night, this is not a particularly safe place. You'll hear and you'll see gunfire and exchanges between the Mexican military and the cartels.
MARTÍNEZ: I wanted to ask you, since you have been here 14 years.
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: During the Biden administration, we always hear about how much looser his border policies were.
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: Was there, like, a deluge of people coming through Laredo?
SMITH: Well, I can tell you, during the Biden administration, multiple years, we had over - well over a hundred thousand people - arrivals to our center. It was...
MARTÍNEZ: To your center, a hundred thousand?
SMITH: Oh, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: From all over?
SMITH: Easy, per year. And whereas today, we're getting maybe 250 to 300 a month. It's a big difference, right? But all of those hundred thousand, they all came through a port of entry, or they all surrendered to Border Patrol. They had paperwork. And they did what was considered, quote-unquote, "the right thing."
MARTÍNEZ: Do you think the way the Trump administration has handled border protection and immigration has caused people to be turned off by the way they have gone about things?
SMITH: Yes, especially here amongst border communities that were not anticipating this level. Originally, the sell was, we're going to get rid of the criminals. And that obviously is not the case, right? I haven't seen criminals arriving at my door. I've seen families and I've seen workers. I've seen people that were, I was walking my kid to school, and I got arrested kind of thing. I don't know what's going to happen in the midterms, but I hope there's some kind of change to make this more palatable.
MARTÍNEZ: Do you worry that a place like yours maybe won't be seen as necessary anymore, especially if the flow becomes...
SMITH: Well...
MARTÍNEZ: ...Even less than a trickle?
SMITH: Before the current administration, there was financial support for shelters along the border that were receiving immigrants. When the new administration came in, we got letters from Department of Homeland Security and DOGE advising us that we were under investigation, that the work we were doing was illegal. And we decided that we were going to do it anyway. Why? Two reasons. One, I think it's the right thing to do. Two, I personally have nothing to lose. I'm a Stage 5 renal failure, so I personally have nothing to lose.
MARTÍNEZ: Looking ahead at the election...
SMITH: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: If there is a dramatic shift in leadership in Texas, how do you think things would change for you, for your organization and for a town like Laredo on the border?
SMITH: I think it's going to be difficult to reverse a lot of the damage that has been done. But it is possible. And you have to take a step somewhere. My belief is that if you get in a change of leadership, people will be able to breathe a bit easier.
MARTÍNEZ: That's why Pastor Mike Smith, who considers himself to be a conservative Republican, says he'll be voting for the Democratic candidates for Senate and governor here in Texas this November.
(SOUNDBITE OF HERMANOS GUTIERREZ'S "CERCA DE TI")
MARTÍNEZ: We asked the Department of Homeland Security about Smith's claims they were investigating the Holding Institute. We did not hear back by deadline.
(SOUNDBITE OF HERMANOS GUTIERREZ'S "CERCA DE TI") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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