EL MURO – THE WALL
Mayor apprises Council and
community of DHS plans to fence
the entire southern border of Texas
“Smart wall” to include steel bollards, buoys,
patrol roads, lights, cameras, detection technology,
and land for a security enforcement zone
At Monday’s City Council meeting Mayor Victor Treviño announced that the City received official notice of the Trump administration’s intent to construct a border wall spanning the U.S./Mexico border. According to the Mayor, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has presented planning and proposed timelines for border wall construction, including wall designs and accompanying technology.
DHS plans a wall for the entire southern border with Mexico, its $4.5 billion cost included in the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R. 1.) The project for DHS’ “smart wall” on 230 miles of the banks of the Río Grande will include 30-foot steel bollard barriers, waterborne barriers (buoys), patrol roads, lights, cameras, and detection technology. It will also include the taking of 150 to 250 feet of land for a security enforcement zone.
“As part of our regular meetings with Border Patrol, we have had several conversations with officials from Border Patrol and Homeland Security on our current state of border apprehensions, encounters, got-aways and splash downs,” Mayor Treviño apprised Council members.
“Throughout these meetings, it has been mentioned that while apprehensions are at historic lows, the encounters which involve Mexican drones, got-aways, and high-speed chases continue to be a concern. However, today, the City of Laredo received official notice of the administration’s plan to build a border wall along the entire southern border, a decision that includes the Laredo area,” he continued, emphasizing the importance of approaching the wall issue with unity and factual understanding, rather than partisanship.
“This issue impacts our local history, environment, economy, and quality of life, thus impacting all Laredoans,” he continued. “It is important that we engage these discussions with facts as they relate to our specific community, because irrespective of what is decided, this will change our community forever. Understanding that the political season has already started, I want to caution the temptation of making this a partisan issue or political pandering. We must send a clear and consistent message to both Austin and Washington, D.C. Anything short of that runs the risk of sending mixed messages, which could be very detrimental and divisive for our community.”
“Our city continues to be the safest city in the state of Texas, and one of the safest cities in the United States, a status we have achieved without the need of a border wall,” he added. “This decision is not about illegal crossings in our area; it is about the president’s campaign promises and chief priorities.”
Following executive session discussion, the Laredo City Council voted to reaffirm its position on supporting border security, but not in support of a border wall within its residential areas and/or city limits. Additionally, Council directed that the matter be brought before the public through a poll to gather community input.
As the City reviews the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to build a wall along the entire southern border of Texas, the City of Laredo will engage the public to have active dialogue on impacts on the environment, community, commerce, history, and identity.
City Council members share their views on inviting President Trump to Laredo to negotiate border wall’s trajectory through Webb County and Laredo, eminent domain, doing business on the links, with a Trump visit will come ICE scrutiny and arrests, how it’s going to be a lot more work than a round of golf, and talking to the head dog and better angels
King: “We have very limited legal options as a city when we have a federal government with $4.5 billion to build the wall. Legally, they have eminent domain to come in and take our property.”
M. Cigarroa: “An invitation to have this administration come to our community will not only bring the head of state, but it will put us in that spotlight for all the ICE enforcement actions that are occurring across our country. This is a new world we find ourselves in, thanks to the immigration enforcement actions by this administration.”
Gutierrez: “We are not inviting President Trump for leisure. People who play golf here know that business is done on a golf course drinking a beer, maybe two. Anyone who plays golf knows that.”
Perez: “If we are going to have a real serious conversation about what’s going on here, I’m not sure that the golf course is the best place for the severity of the conversation that we need to have. It’s going to be a lot more work than a round of golf.”
Garza: “We need to talk to the head dog because it is affecting us down here. Let’s speak to their better angels.”
At the Monday, Nov. 3 City Council meeting, Council members offered their views on the possibility of inviting President Donald Trump to Laredo so that he might understand that the Department of Homeland Security’s plans for the city are not a good fit for the community.
As you have read, the DHS plans, part of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, have allocated $4.5 billion to build a wall on the entire southern border of Texas.
The Mayor’s statement is printed above.
District 6 Council member Dr. Tyler King
“We are for border security, but not for border barriers in the city limits and residential communities,” King said. Referencing the DHS Smart Wall map, he noted the plans for Laredo include a wall of 30-foot steel bollards on the riverfront and buoy barriers in the river that will stretch from South Laredo, through all of the city — including downtown — and to the Colombia Solidarity Bridge.
As to the power of $4.5 billion to build a border wall, King continued, “We have very limited legal options as a city when we have a federal government with $4.5 billion to build the wall. Legally, they have eminent domain to come in and take our property.”
He addressed the “invitation” to ask the President to Laredo. “We have the #9 ranked municipal golf course in Texas that happens to be located on the Río Grande. If you look on the map right now, the wall would go through the Max Mandel Golf Course, requiring us to relocate two holes unnecessarily.”
King cited Laredo’s “lowest immigrant crossings in history” and said, “The crossings, drugs, and human trafficking are happening on the bridges.” He added that more X-ray technology at the international bridges would address drugs and human trafficking.
King said that though the media chose to report “King wants to invite Trump for golf,” his agenda item included having the President tour the World Trade Bridge and downtown Laredo and to have a discussion of the potential impacts of a border barrier on the City of Laredo riverfront.
He thanked Council members Alyssa Cigarroa and Ruben Gutierrez for co-sponsoring his agenda item.
“It would be good for the President to see that Laredo is a unique community compared to other parts of the border. We have people who live right up against the border,” he said.
District 3 Council member Melissa Cigarroa
“What the invitation ignores, as much as we are trying to navigate our way through this carefully, is what ICE immigration raids have shown in Chicago, Washington, Boston, and Los Angeles,” she said,
“There is a real difference between what this President promised, which was an ejection of ‘murderers, rapists, and drug dealers’ and what we see daily in front of our own eyes — the detention of longtime residents who are working, who are waiting in line to pick up their children at school, who are at the courthouse or immigration offices to continue the red tape of correcting their immigration status through a legal process, who are refugees from war or natural disasters, who five minutes prior to ICE coming to arrest them were under protected legal status, but because of an executive order have had their status yanked out from under them with zero consideration of the impact to their family, with zero grace to plan for their new reality.
“Unless we take comfort in our own citizenship, understand that plenty of people have been taken into custody, regardless of their citizenship status. There have been 170 detentions of citizens and others who are here legally. The excuse for their detentions runs the gamut of an irritation of protesters to looking like an undocumented Mexican. This week a feckless Supreme Court judge is allowing ICE to pick up people based on how they look, according to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This is grossly insulting to everything we understand about equal protection under the law,” Cigarroa continued. She called the Supreme Court’s ‘shadow docket decision’ “an un-American unraveling” of Constitutional rights.
“I bring up ICE because an invitation to have this administration come to our community will not only bring the head of state, but it will put us in that spotlight for all the enforcement actions that are occurring across our country. This is a new world we find ourselves in, thanks to the immigration enforcement actions by this administration….
“We in Laredo are proudly a majority minority city. We are 95% Hispanic. We host many legal residents who live in our city. We host many day visitors who cross our international bridges, some who work here, some who do business here, some who shop here, and all who contribute to our growing economy.
“So let’s pretend that this is a serious attempt to address this border wall issue. I believe it is ill advised and not serious because it is isolating one issue while pretending like the rest of the other actions that are occurring right now are not occurring, that we can isolate them somehow. But what would we do with additional ICE enforcement actions? Currently our local ICE officers work as they have been with an understanding of the many immigration statuses that people hold here. We trust our local officials who understand their community. The newly commissioned enforcement division, whether it is ICE or the much less trained newly assigned Border Patrol officers, they are not like our local Border Patrol officers who have a deep understanding of community…these newly trained officers have shown a complete disrespect for Constitutional protections and for human decency.”
She continued, “In Chicago, according to Reuter’s, quote, ‘Immigration agents have teargassed at least five neighborhoods in the last month; crashed a car into another vehicle at least once; arrested protesters trailing immigration agents; pointed guns at people and shot two, one fatally; used tasers on people during violent arrests; and terrorized children participating in a Halloween parade by teargassing them.’
“Why would we vote to allow this into our community? Who will invite this kind of terror to be perpetuated on our residents? And who will pay for this?” She questioned the significant price tag of $200,000 to $300,000 a day for local law enforcement to provide security for the President’s visit to Laredo.
“In my opinion, it’s hard to separate the ego of this President from the actions his administration participates in. We will ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars for security costs and bring real fear into our community.
“So I cannot agree to vote for this request,” she concluded.
District 5 Council member Ruben Gutierrez
“I just want the public to know we are not inviting President Trump for leisure. People who play golf here know that business is done on a golf course drinking a beer, maybe two. Anyone who plays golf knows that.
“Business is done on a golf course,” he repeated. “This gentleman, our President, plays golf. He loves the sport. We need to work it. We need him to come here to see how beautiful The Max Golf Course is, so he doesn’t build this wall here. If we can get him here, hook him to get here….we can convince him of that.
“It’s not about playing golf. It’s about getting the President of the United States here in Laredo to get him to see how beautiful our city is, how beautiful our golf course is, so we can get him hopefully to not build that wall that we don’t want. We simply don’t want a wall here. We simply don’t need it. We don’t want to see us divided with our partner in Mexico. That’s the whole reason behind it.
“As far as the money being spent, we spend two or three hundred thousand on a parade, but we can’t use it to have a president here?…A lot of you don’t want the wall. A lot of you do want the wall, and we are split. Laredo is split, but to spend two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand on security to have our president here and maybe, maybe not get a wall built here is certainly worth it as far as I’m concerned.
“So I applaud you for bringing this item,” he gestured to Council member King. “I know we got some heat for it, because I got some calls as well, but I think it’s worth the try to get that man, because he’s the only one to make that decision. We can speak to everyone else under him, but he’s the one making the decision to get that wall built here. And if we can convince him not to build it, then we’re doing something good.”
District 7 Council member Vanessa Perez
Council member Perez addressed golf, bringing the President to Laredo, and losing public and private property to eminent domain. “I appreciate what’s trying to be done here. I think we should have open arms to everybody who is willing to come into our city. That for me is not the issue. Golf, I can appreciate that a lot of people play it. I personally don’t. If we are going to have a real serious conversation about what’s going on here, I’m not sure that the golf course is the best place for the severity of the conversation that we need to have.
“I would prefer a sit-down and to have a serious discussion on the situation at hand, in terms that we are here to protect public property. The real issue at hand is that that whether you agree with the wall or not, it’s going to involve them taking away city property which belongs to our local taxpayers. We are not talking about an easement anymore. Now it’s about they will acquire property that belongs to the citizens of Laredo.” Perez said she favors negotiation. She concluded with, “It’s going to be a lot more work than a round of golf.”
District 4 Council member Ricardo Garza
“The invitation serves not only to bring him here. I think as President he doesn’t get to hear what’s going on at the ground level, a lot of what’s going on in Laredo, Texas, I doubt he hears up there. Whether this invitation works or not, I think it serves a purpose to put the eyes of the world down here. We can certainly not only talk about the wall but also how it is affecting us. This isn’t a red or blue conversation….Our people down here are suffering because of this….Eminent domain is coming in, people’s properties will be taken away and people will be left without anything, without any regard for human decency or empathy. That’s what’s going to happen, so we need to embrace this….We need to talk to the head dog because it is affecting us down here.
Let’s speak to their better angels.
“The idea is to showcase the probable damage that it’s going to cause the environment in a place where he’s (Trump) comfortable at. It might sound a little, you know, corny for a lack of a better word. It starts there at the course with a conversation out in the open and you can (join) the other agenda item with this one and build a delegation off of it. That’s certainly good. Obviously you don’t want him to spend the whole day out there.”
STATEMENT FROM
THE RIO GRANDE INTERNATIONAL STUDY CENTER
Our environmental organization is aware of the federal government’s plans to seize land and build a border wall along the entire riverfront in Laredo, Webb County, and Zapata County. They made a similar attempt in 2019 and 2020 and have resurrected these destructive plans once more in 2025.
On Monday evening, the Mayor of Laredo announced that the City received official notice earlier in the day of the U.S. government’s intentions to seize these historic lands and build a wall. In 1755, Laredo’s founders established this city at this strategic location because of its direct access to the river. In 2020, City leaders stood alongside a movement of residents who soundly rejected the wall. This year, 2025, City leaders rejected it yet again with another unanimous vote at this week’s City Council meeting.
We are a river people. To permanently cut off our access to the Rio Grande – our community’s very source of life – is to cut us off from our historic ecological and cultural identity.
Our organization was founded in 1994 to bring greater awareness, attention, and investment to our only source of drinking water, the river. We will closely monitor the developments of this unnecessary, costly infrastructure project that will create extraordinary damage to our riverfront and landscape and wipe out untold hundreds of millions of dollars in investments along the river.
Proposed Border Wall & Buoy Locations in Webb County, Texas. Click for an interactive map. (Courtesty of RGISC)
The U.S. government plans to ram through this ill-conceived project through dozens of miles of our public parks, neighborhoods, nature trails, businesses, and multigenerational private ranchland. Opposition to the wall goes beyond politics. It is a battle for the very soul of Laredo.
The scale of the damage is unimaginable. The U.S. government plans to take permanent possession of all riverfront land to construct a 30-foot-tall steel wall. This includes the taking of 150-250 feet from the riverbank – the length of a five-lane highway – to build a security enforcement zone (SEZ). This off-limits enforcement zone will be filled with government roads and vehicles and stadium style lights.
Meanwhile, they also plan to install large buoys separated by razor sharp discs along the entire length of the river.
We commend our City leaders for courageously standing firm and voicing their opposition to the wall and these destructive government plans. We need you to be part of this movement to counter these aggressive tactics that will forever change our way of life. Join us.
Congressman Cuellar on Border Wall in Laredo and on entire southern border
By Congressman Henry Cuellar, Ph.D. (TX-28)
“Border walls are a 14th-century solution to 21st-century problems. Border crossings are already down, and Laredo continues to be one of the safest places to live in the United States. This was accomplished without additional border wall being added, but through enforcement of the law and investing in resources at our border. We have seen illegal crossings fall to their lowest levels in the Southwest, demonstrating that practical enforcement and coordination drive results.
“Those outcomes reflect real consequences at the border and deeper cooperation with Mexico and our Latin American partners. By aligning enforcement, information sharing, and regional responsibility, we are addressing the problem where it begins and delivering measurable improvements at the border.
“We need to continue to invest in technology and our hardworking DHS workforce, including frontline Border Patrol Agents and CBP Officers. That is why, as a senior appropriator, I have secured record levels of funding for Border Patrol Agents and $125 million for increases to Border Patrol overtime pay authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These investments ensure that agents have the resources, time, and support they need to sustain and build on recent progress.
“I support smart border security solutions that will strengthen our federal border law enforcement while cracking down on fentanyl trafficking and human trafficking. That is why I have also consistently worked in a bipartisan manner to secure funding for personnel, technology upgrades, drone detection systems, the elimination of Carrizo cane, improvements to river and patrol roads, and more boots on the ground. With targeted resources and strategic investments, we can keep communities safe and disrupt criminal networks.
“I look forward to working with the Administration to strengthen these proven strategies—expanding technology, enhancing surveillance and detection capabilities, improving river and patrol roads, and increasing staffing—to secure our border effectively and responsibly.
“Border security is about results. South Texas has shown that strategic investments, professional law enforcement, and regional partnerships are what work, and that is the approach I will continue to advance.”
(Congressman Henry Cuellar, Ph.D. is a senior member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. Previously, he served as a Texas State Representative and Texas Secretary of State.)
