SAN ANTONIO — Remarks made in Eagle Pass by incoming border czar Tom Homan have prompted rising concern among some immigrants’ rights advocates.
“I just don’t know what to expect but I can tell you it’s not going to be something pleasant,” said Jessie Fuentes, member of the Eagle Pass Border Coalition.
Homan and Gov. Greg Abbott toured the border in Eagle Pass on Tuesday, serving hot meals to members of the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety.
The visit served as another opportunity for Homan to promote a vision of immigration policy under President-elect Donald Trump.
“There is going to be a mass deportation because we just finished a mass illegal immigration crisis on the border,” Homan said. “We’re already talking, we’re already planning.”
Homan said the plan would involve the deportation of millions of migrants and initially target criminals. He’s noted in the past there are no intentions of performing sweeps of neighborhoods.
Details revolving around financing and personnel needed to carry out such an operation have yet to be revealed.
Fuentes, owner of Epi's Canoe and Kayak Team, is no stranger to fighting for the rights of immigrants, as he sued the State of Texas last year following Gov. Abbott’s installation of buoys in the Rio Grande. The lawsuit claimed the buoys discriminated against Mexican-Americans and Mexican nationals while also posing a detrimental risk to the environment.
The Biden administration followed up with a lawsuit of its own.
Fuentes is now met with more questions than answers.
“I just don’t know what to expect but I can tell you it’s not going to be something pleasant,” Fuentes said. “We’re concerned about human rights, civil rights, environmental justice. How this is going to affect the economy, how it’s going to affect our culture. What level are they going to put up with? To the point where families are separated or individuals that have lived their entire lives on this side are accidentally or by mistake deported.”
Immigration attorney Gerardo Menchaca anticipates another round of legal challenges when Trump implements his plan for mass deportations.
“If I know anything from our history with Donald Trump four years ago is that he tends to go far and when he does he’s likely to be meant with injunctions,” Menchaca said.