Police Chief: No one filing reports
About a month or so ago, whenever these ICE crackdowns began, before they started arresting non-violent offenders like Leo down at the car wash, I called a local Valley police chief I know to ask him how his city was faring.
The DWIs are down, he said, and so are the domestic offenses (spousal abuse, etc.) It seems, said he, that no one wants to draw attention to him or herself. Meaning, the bad actors were playing nice.
That, in and of itself, wasn’t a bad thing, he said.
That was then. This is now.
When I called him this week, though, to ask him how it was now within his city’s limits, in late June 2025, he paused for a minute and then said, not so good.
Why?
Because, said he, people are so afraid of ICE they don’t want to report crimes, even the domestic crimes that may take place inside their home, and when we ask someone to give a statement about a crime, they don’t want to talk to us, come to the PD, nothing.
No hyperbole -- too many people are afraid of leaving home.
And these are people in the RGV that you and I have known forever. They either mowed our lawns, when we had the money, cleaned our businesses, worked for the handyman who just installed new windows, served our meals, cooked them, too, washed the dishes, worked as janitors, built the new apartment building, but now they’re being treated like common criminals?
Back to the police chief’s comments:
“Even though we don’t hand their names to ICE or run them through any system to question their legality, they’re afraid of talking to local police. And there is nothing we can say that will convince them otherwise.”
According to the chief, whose name I’m keeping out of print because who needs the hassle these days of offending anyone, the problem, as he sees it, is not offering any route to citizenship or legal work status to those who have been living in this country for years, worked, never committed a crime. Why are those people being deported, but they are.
“That’s just not right,” said the chief.
Nope. “Something’s got to change,” he said.
Yep.
Farm Problems
Trump may call The New York Times fake news, as he does with almost any news organization that prints or broadcasts something he doesn’t like, but that doesn’t mean “America’s paper of record” still doesn’t publish some of the finest journalism being written in the U.S.
Case in point, tied to local ICE arrests of the undocumented, a story the Times published June 27th, which carried this headline: “On a quiet southern border, empty farms and frightened workers.”
The writer – Edgar Sandoval. The story included a quote from a farmer based in Donna, Nick Billman, who owns Red River Farms: “Right now, I have zero workers. We need to figure out what we’re doing, you know?”
The story then included a quote from a woman, Elizabeth Rodriguez, who works as an activist with the National Farm Worker Ministry: “The majority of workers here (the RGV) are longtime residents who for some reason or another don’t have legal status. And now, they are terrified to go to work. The fields are nearly empty.”
The math isn’t hard to do, and it points to a big problem for our local ag industry and this nation’s ability to harvest crops.
In a recent survey published by the National Center for Farmworker Health, approximately 80 percent of farmworkers in Hidalgo County are undocumented.
As The NY Times story points out, there are an estimated 2,400 farms in Hidalgo County.
According to the same study, the legal farmworkers with H-2A visas, which allow them to live here legally while they do farm labor, is a small percentage of the work force.
Trust Me?
Recently, President Trump said that his administration needs to work something out so that farms won’t suffer from any loss of labor, but now that much of the farm labor is in hiding, for the most part, keeping their collective heads low, will they have trust in what the president says?
Like the Iran deal. Promises to give the mullah regime two weeks to agree to cut a deal before the U.S. would attack, and then he bombs three of their nuclear targets two days later. After saying he would wait two weeks?
Trust issues, some will say. A man who doesn’t fool around, say MAGA supporters.
Question is, will the farmworkers so desperately needed by local farmers next November, after the vegetables are planted this August, believe they are safe from deportation if they return to work? Based on the word of the president?
Sure, he secured the southern border, which needed securing, and he did it when no other president before apparently could or would, but compared to everything else he’s done, how would you rate him?
The tariff deal is a cluster. At least so far, is it not?
According to a report released last week by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau, the U.S. trade deficit actually increased in May by approximately 11 percentage points, mainly because U.S. exports slowed while foreign imports stayed basically the same.
On top of that, Americans are more divided than ever before, and even after Biden has now been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, Trump is still mocking him, “Sleepy Joe who kept falling down stairs,” calling him derogatory names in public; the sort of juvenile rhetoric we used to hear in 8th grade, or use, before we could even spell rhetoric.
Who does that? Why I’m even writing this, who knows? Many loyal Advance readers still love the guy, Donald J. Trump, so I should probably just shut up, not offend anyone, but that’s just not my style.
Same thing happened with W. He screwed up so bad going into Iraq and Afghanistan, I had to call him out on it in The Advance even though the GOP never wavered in its support of the guy who could never add 2 plus 2 even on the best of days.
Five? During an interview Sunday on Fox News, when asked about his recent remarks that suggested his administration might ease up some on the deportation of the undocumented farmworkers and those working at hotels (maid service), Trump had this to say: “I don’t back away. What I do have, I cherish our farmers. And when we go into a farm and we take away people that have been working there for 15 and 20 years, who were good, who possibly came in incorrectly. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to do something for farmers where we can let the farmer sort of be in charge. The farmer knows he’s not going to hire a murderer.”
The farmers know, sure, because a lot of these same people have been working for them for years, some spanning generations, both farmer and farmworker.
Question is, will the farmers have enough farm labor this year when they need it most?
Or, with ongoing ICE arrests hitting the news daily, is even driving to the fields to work going to feel safe for the farm workers?
Hate to say it, but I’m guessing, no.
Meaning, Houston, we have a major problem here.
No farm labor, no harvested vegetables this fall?
Fight Breaks Out
Congress? Forget about them. Since when is approving a new budget (the Big Beautiful Bill) that will add $5 trillion to the national debt ceiling a good thing?
When we’re already approximately $36 trillion in debt.
Musk has spoken out against the massive bill – calling the GOP the Porky Pig Party – and now Trump wants to send him back to South Africa.
Yeah, but SpaceX has no real competition, and a lot of other countries would like to have it.
Strange times. Said Musk this Monday, posting on X: “It is obvious with the insane spending of this bill, which increases the debt ceiling by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS that we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
It’s time for a new political party, Musk tweeted.
Not to be outdone, Trump, Elon’s former close friend, posted his comeback on Truth Social Monday night: “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”