MCALLEN, Texas — Javier Villalobos was elected as the new mayor of McAllen, a bustling town by the U.S.-Mexico border, in June, and his election is coming at an interesting time. Roughly centrally located in the Rio Grande Valley, now the epicenter of the ongoing border crisis, Villalobos seems to be an example of how the Democratic strongholds on the border are not as strong as they once were.
Villalobos has gone from working in the onion fields in the Valley to being in charge of a Latino-majority city of around 140,000 people. Before elected as mayor, he was a city commissioner and chairman of the Hidalgo County GOP.
In an interview with Townhall, Villalobos explained the unique challenges the city faces by being located right at the southern border, along with the more mundane problems found in cities and towns elsewhere in the United States. Winning 51 percent of the vote in the June runoff, Villalobos said he believes if the border crisis was a factor in his victory, it was a minor factor.
"I think what has happened is people who are traditionally conservative, and I'm talking about the Hispanic community, they also have traditionally voted Democrat. Now our election was non-partisan...however, I ran based on conservative principles...I think since the last election, more people started thinking, 'Hey, you know what, it's ok to say I'm Republican or conservative,'" Villalobos said.
While Villalobos said he does not like to play the blame game, he admits the situation at the border was better "before" President Joe Biden came into office, considering the city is now helping process 1,000 illegal immigrants a day, the funding of which is naturally coming from the taxpayers.
"We're spending some money; fortunately, this time not as much, on a federal issue. We have no business dealing with immigration, but we have to because they drop off the immigrants in downtown McAllen. So we have to assist logistically with some transportation; otherwise, where would they be? What would they do? To me, it's more of a public safety issue," he explained.
Villalobos said he is worried about what will happen once Title 42, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) policy that enables Border Patrol to conduct expedited deportations to avoid crowding at their facilities during a pandemic, is removed by the Biden administration. He added he is not anti-immigrant, but there needs to be an orderly way for people to come legally into the country.
Villalobos said that while the Mexican border towns are experiencing increased cartel violence, he is not concerned about the violence "spilling over" into his town. Whenever there has been violence, he said, it has mostly stayed south of the Rio Grande.
Villalobos also revealed no senior member of the Department of Homeland Security or Department of Health and Human Services has reached out to him to detail what resources are available to the city in order to help deal with the surge.
As with any town, McAllen has its share of regular problems that aren't national news. Villalobos' main priority is to improve the city's drainage system. As I can attest due to my recent trips to the area, it only takes a little bit of rain for the roads to become little ponds, with the water having nowhere to go.