海角大神

Late Saturday morning, a trickle of people wearing green and white Mexico jerseys trickled into the TKO Sports Bar & Grill, seven minutes from the Texas-Mexico border, its doors and windows shuttered to keep out the steadily climbing heat.

Just inside the door, a life-size cardboard cut-out of four Mexican players greeted fans, one with a hole instead of a face, and some supporters stopped to briefly fill the vacancy next to the smiling likeness of star striker Javier 鈥淐hicharito鈥� Hern谩ndez. Some finished up breakfast as the national anthems played, while others headed straight across the freshly mopped floor to join the crowd watching El Tri take on South Korea. The whistle for kick-off triggered muted clapping and cheers.

When a World Cup rolls around, it has in recent years meant a complex and emotional decision for most soccer fans in Laredo. The city is 95 percent Hispanic, the largest percentage of any large metro area in the country, and fans are often torn聽over their allegiance to the country of their birth and the country of their heritage. Daily life on the border, meanwhile, is relatively calm, with residents used to being surrounded by border agents and daily shoppers from Mexico, and used to heated border-security rhetoric from Washington.

This time around, though, World Cup allegiance has been made simpler here by the United States team鈥檚 absence from the quadrennial soccer showpiece. But the Trump administration鈥檚 zero-tolerance border policy 鈥� the decision to prosecute everyone caught crossing the border illegally, including asylum-seekers 鈥� and now-ended separation of migrant families, has disrupted and complicated routines on the border. Border residents, who had grown used to the post-9/11 ramp up in security infrastructure and rhetoric, say they are getting caught up in the emotion and confusion of this new crisis.

It鈥檚 half-time, and Mexico is leading thanks to a penalty kick by striker Carlos Vela. Vanessa Salinas, a lifelong Laredoan, mentions that there are 鈥渁 lot of cops in Laredo right now.鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 mind,鈥� she adds, but 鈥渢hey鈥檙e keeping people away who they don鈥檛 have a reason to.鈥�

鈥淚 just think it鈥檚 really mean,鈥� she continues about the now-discontinued policy of separating children from their parents. 鈥淢exican, American, or whatever, you should be able to stay with your family.鈥�

A week of confusion

Living on the border means living with things most other Americans don鈥檛, and to live with those things without batting an eye. Shopping downtown means rubbing elbows with the thousands of people who cross from Mexico daily to work and shop. US Border Patrol vans roll by with the regularity of mail trucks. Watching the news means watching politicians who don鈥檛 live here talk about how dangerous your town is.

In recent weeks, however, those aspects of border life feel like they鈥檝e been dialed to 11. Even the weather has been amplified, with McAllen experiencing a 100-year rainfall event and a 250-year rainfall event in the space of a few days last week, prompting a state of emergency聽wholly unrelated to the border crisis.

鈥淭he rain鈥檚 coming down, the airport鈥檚 saying, 鈥榃e don鈥檛 know how long we鈥檙e going to stay open, and by the way the first lady is coming,鈥櫬犫�� recounts Jim Darling, the mayor of McAllen. 鈥淭hat was an interesting morning.鈥�

That visit occurred shortly after President Trump signed an executive order June 20 stopping the separation of migrant families who cross the border. A week later there have been more developments, but confusion persists. Nationwide, 130 events are planned in protest of the border policy Saturday.

• The executive order said nothing about the more than 2,300 migrant children who had already been separated from their parents. Last weekend the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement聽describing how the government 鈥渋s working to reunite [children] with their families.鈥�
• On Monday, Mr. Trump announced via Twitter that he wanted to strip due-process rights from migrants, which legal experts say would be a violation of the US Consitution.
• A federal judge in California ordered the government to reunite all of the families within 30 days. The deadline is within two weeks for children under 5.
• Reports emerged聽that the Pentagon is making preparations to house 20,000 unaccompanied minors in tent camps on two military bases in Texas.

Amid all those orders, the week has been full of conflicting reports about how officials on the border are responding. Border Patrol agents temporarily stopped referring immigration cases to federal prosecutors, while another agency stated at one point that prosecutions of immigrants with families had been suspended, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, the increase in immigration cases being brought to federal court has seen other border crimes like drug smuggling being prosecuted in state courts聽鈥� California being one example where drug cases聽have 鈥渟kyrocketed鈥澛爄n state courts in recent months.

Most recently, it emerged that 19 investigators for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen last week saying the Trump administration鈥檚 crackdown on illegal immigration has limited their ability to perform other duties, such as investigating drug and human trafficking and cyber crimes, and calling on her to separate their duties from immigration enforcement.

A 鈥榤uch more emotional鈥� border

In McAllen the confusion has even got to the locals, with some contacting Mayor Darling on social media or by email blaming the city government for separating migrant families.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 read them too closely,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 try not to get into an argument with people.鈥�

The city was also at the epicenter of the 2014 surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America in 2014, but this current crisis is 鈥渕uch more emotional,鈥� he says.

鈥淭he criticism we got [in 2014] was anti-immigrant criticism, 鈥榃hy are you helping these people?鈥� 鈥� he adds. 鈥淭his time we鈥檝e got criticized for being part of the separations, and neither are necessarily true or pleasant.鈥�

A concrete impact Darling says he has noticed, more a result of the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration policy generally than the zero-tolerance policy specifically, is a negative economic one. Sales tax revenues have been down for 24 months, he says, starting before Trump took office 鈥� a big deal given sales tax contributes more to the city鈥檚 general fund than any other revenue source. Actions like requesting the National Guard be sent to protect the border, along with the consistent messaging from Trump and his supporters about how dangerous the border is, have been giving potential investors pause. Violence on the Mexican side of the border has also been a factor.

鈥淲hen they鈥檙e sending troops down to protect the border, and President Trump is saying the border isn鈥檛 safe,鈥� Darling says, 鈥渨e鈥檙e trying to attract businesses and 鈥� those things have a direct [negative] impact.鈥�

Back in Laredo, Ms. Salinas also thinks about the economy when she thinks about the thousands of families seeking asylum at the border, most fleeing gang violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

She works three jobs 鈥� as an accountant, an announcer, and a D.J. 鈥� and says the American dream 鈥渋s not what they think it is.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 more expensive, it鈥檚 hard, it鈥檚 another language,鈥� she adds. 鈥淚f I was a mom, I wouldn鈥檛 come to this country for a better life.鈥�

Mexico went on to beat South Korea, the bar erupting into cheers when Hern谩ndez steered in a second goal in the 66th minute. After the final whistle, when most of the fans had filtered back out into the boiling midday sun, Gerard Juarez stayed in his seat.

Visiting from Portland, Texas, and watching the game with his girlfriend鈥檚 nephew, he says in Spanish that the family separations were 鈥渋mmoral.鈥�

鈥淲e need more [border] security, but not this way,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭here鈥檚 violence in their countries.... They鈥檙e not criminals.鈥�

Right now, he continues, 鈥渢his is another vision of the United States.鈥�