Homeland Security chief hears farmers’ concerns, dismisses economic fallout of ICE raids

For years, Brownsville rancher Mark Elbert says he carried a gun to protect himself from cartel activity on his family’s land that sits along the Rio Grande River, as there were fewer U.S. Border Patrol agents in the field and the wall had not yet been built. Some days, he’d come home for lunch and watch cartel vehicles speed past his house carrying loads. 

“Now much of this has dried up,” Mark said. “Before, we didn’t want our kids riding their bikes on the road because they would bring loads in and fly down our street.” 

Now, Elbert’s ranch, which is rented out for dove hunting and farming, sits behind the border wall that stretches along the levee. That doesn’t mean he and his wife Bonnie Elbert still don’t witness illegal activity — they still do — they just feel like when they need to call for help, there are enough agents in the area to respond quickly.

In 2023, there was a massive influx of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, but that has since subsided. 

“When all that was going on, we did not see an agent out here in the field. They were too busy processing,” Bonnie said about the influx of immigrants seeking asylum en masse after crossing the border in the Rio Grande Valley. “Since Trump took over, we see them (agents) on a regular basis.”

The pair shared their experiences living on the Texas-Mexico border with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a roundtable discussion at their ranch on Wednesday. The event was hosted by fellow farmers, ranchers, and law enforcement in the Rio Grande Valley. 

The Trump administration is pushing ahead with building a longer border wall and has hired Gibraltar U.S. of Burnet, Texas, to build sections of that wall, in addition to installing new orange buoys near the Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville. 

Secretary Noem leaned in to listen to concerns from local business owners in farming and ranching, but deflected concerns about the economic impact of sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on worksites across the Valley. 

South Texas Builders Association leaders say they’ve seen some workers with legal status get detained alongside those without legal documents during ICE raids this year. Noem rejected that it was possible. 

“Well, that’s not happening, that’s just not true. We are focused on going after the worst of the worst in every community across this country to make our streets safe,” Noem told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. “Anyone who is a citizen of this country or is legal has nothing to fear. We are only enforcing the law. Those businesses don’t have anything to fear if they are following the law.” 

In fiscal year 2025, ICE arrested 1,371 individuals in the Harlingen area, a sector that encompasses arrests made throughout the Rio Grande Valley. In 2024, ICE arrested 6,029 individuals; in fiscal year 2023, 6,309; in fiscal year 2022, 6,115. 

The South Texas Builders Association had invited representatives of Homeland Security to a meeting last year to discuss potential solutions to a dwindling qualified construction workforce. 

The builders group says they are not against ICE agents doing their jobs, but are concerned about them crossing into private property and conducting immigration raids during the workday, since it’s a civil, not criminal issue. 

Since then, the builders’ association has met with many elected officials and encouraged Republicans and Democrats alike to work towards a solution for the workforce situation. There are two bills in the works: one that would enable undocumented workers to be sponsored by employers, and a second that would provide a path to work visas, similar to the agriculture industry, for construction. 

The South Texas Builders Association expects to host a second meeting at the Brookhaven Event Center in Pharr on January 16 to continue the conversation. On Thursday, the association will also host its “2026 Economic Outlook” event from 10 a.m. to noon at its office, 801 E. Fern Ave.