More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been deported from the Rio Grande Valley between October 2022 and March 2026 by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, according to a new report by a nonprofit research organization in Edinburg, Texas.
And that reality, with fewer residents in a community of several million people, comes with an economic loss estimated at $180.6 million between 2022 and 2026.
About 43% of those economic losses stem from 2025 alone, according to the Caminos Institute’s inaugural report.
The report, written by the institute’s executive producer, Andrik Gonzalez, analyzed ICE arrest records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the Deportation Data Project. It found that ICE detained 13,377 people in Hidalgo, Cameron, Willacy, and Starr counties from October 2022 through March 2026. Of those, ICE eventually deported 10,142 residents.
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Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza
Reporter
Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza is a versatile multimedia news reporter who lives and works along the Texas-Mexico border in Hidalgo County. Mosbrucker-Garza is a news reporter for the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. During her career she's worked for the McAllen Monitor, San Antonio Business Journal, The Advocate Newspaper in Louisiana, Phoenix New Times, and public media outlets in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
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