CHICAGO — The U.S.-Mexico border was top of mind on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, and a couple of Texans took the stage to speak on the topic.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday night in his impassioned speech about his experience with immigration in his community near the border.
“On the other side of the border, the traffickers they pack migrants into 18-wheelers like cattle, 50, 100 at a time. Then, they seal the doors. That’s when the 911 calls come,” Salazar said. “We hear them, desperate, terrified, gasping for air. Now, sometimes we get there in time. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can’t.”
One of those 911 calls led deputies and other law enforcement in San Antonio to the deadliest smuggling attempt from the border in history, where 53 migrants died after being left in a tractor-trailer in the sweltering Texas heat. Over a dozen people have been arrested in multiple countries in connection to the human trafficking operation.
Salazar criticized former President Donald Trump, claiming he “killed” the bipartisan border bill, which failed in the Senate earlier this year after Trump and other top Republicans pushed GOP lawmakers to reject it, and said he hasn’t helped local law enforcement officers in border towns.
“When Donald Trump comes down to Texas, stands next to officers in uniforms just like mine, he’s not there to help us,” he said. “Don’t think that for a second. He is a self-serving man.”
The sheriff, who is the top law enforcement official in Texas’ fourth most populous county, went on to praise Harris for her work on the border during her time as California’s attorney general.
“She’s gone down to Mexico and worked to stop the traffickers, and when the traffickers didn’t stop, she put them in jail,” he said. “Now, down in my neck of the woods, we call that fooling around and finding out.”
Another Texan quoted the late President Ronald Reagan in his speech about immigration.
“As Ronald Reagan, a Republican, once said, ‘We lead the world because unique among nations we draw our people, our strength, from every country, every corner of the world.’ Reagan knew that welcoming immigrants is not a Democratic or a Republican value, it is an American value,” social media influencer and law school graduate Carlos Eduardo Espina said.
Espina discussed being the son of immigrants who came and started a family in College Station, Texas, over two decades ago.
He slammed Trump’s rhetoric about migrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” calling it “dangerous” and “outright anti-American.”
Trump made those comments back in December 2023 at a rally in New Hampshire and then repeated it on his social media platform Truth Social, saying “illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation.” At the time, the comments drew condemnation from Democrats, comparing it to the rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler. Trump claimed he did not know Hitler said it.
Republicans have been critical of President Joe Biden and Democrats on issues of immigration, and they seek to tie Harris to the Biden administration’s handling of the border.
Although migrant crossings have decreased consistently over the past couple of months, they reached historic levels in the past year.
Recent polls find Americans are more likely to trust Republicans than Democrats on immigration and border issues. Independents told pollsters with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research last week that they are more likely to trust Trump over Harris on handling immigration.
Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday ahead of Harris’ speech to close out the DNC in Chicago.