Sébastien Le Belzic (special correspondent to Eagle Pass)
It is a duel taking place in Texas between the two favorites in the American presidential election. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are at the Mexican border to each talk about immigration, one of the main themes of this campaign. In Eagle Pass, Donald Trump supporters came in numbers to demand the border be closed.
It’s a day that really resembles a duel. In Texas, country of cowboys, the two presidential candidates were on site at the same time, at two border crossings located 500 km away from each other. At Eagle Pass, the main border crossing between Mexico and the United States, Donald Trump supporters make their voices heard in the streets.
Wearing a cowboy hat and a T-shirt bearing the image of Donald Trump, Cindy, 65, came to see her candidate and with him to demand the closure of the borders. “It’s always been a very safe city, but now there are a lot of people arriving and we don’t know who they are. There are car thefts, murders… Things that we don’t know had never seen before”, she assures at the microphone of Europe 1.
“The reality is that there is no invasion”
Last December alone, 150,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border last December. A boon for Donald Trump who accuses Joe Biden of being solely responsible: “The United States is overwhelmed. It is a migrant crime that we owe to Joe Biden. It is a new form of vicious violation of our country,” said the former President of the United States.
But for Jessy, a perfect 63-year-old cowboy, there is no question of giving in to fear. “Chaos scares people, makes them feel threatened. But the reality is that there is no invasion,” he proclaims. So, while waiting for a hypothetical victory for Donald Trump, the Republican governor of Texas is building a military base at Eagle Pass with 1,800 national guards placed under his control.