Asalia Casares, 52, a lifetime Democrat, voted for Joe Biden in 2020 together with many in Maverick County, a rare Democratic stronghold amid Texas' Republican majority.
Casares worries about the high amounts of illegal immigration in Eagle Pass, Texas, where she was born and reared beside the Rio Grande. She sympathizes with migrants but worries about neighbors and migrant families' safety, citing the perils of crossing the Rio Grande and an incident where three people were found sheltering behind an elderly neighbor's house.
Maverick County tax official Casares, running for reelection, believes Republican former President Donald Trump's stronger approach will deter border crossings. She stated Wednesday she would likely vote for him over Biden in the November presidential election outside an early polling station.
"Having Biden and Trump is difficult since I'm a Democrat but don't enjoy our lives. "I don't like our borders," she remarked "Probably Trump."
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, will visit Eagle Pass on Thursday to capitalize on that dissatisfaction. He plans to tighten his first-term immigration crackdown and reinstate his signature policies, like as building a border wall and the "remain in Mexico" program, which compelled some non-Mexican migrants to wait in Mexico for their U.S. asylum hearings.
Eagle Pass is in Hispanic Maverick County, which has supported Democratic presidential candidates for nearly a century. After losing Texas, Biden defeated Trump in the county in 2020.
The Maverick County Republican Party cites political analyst Dave Wasserman's 2016–2020 presidential election analysis demonstrating Trump's growth. The county Democratic Party did not respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas, 320 miles (515 km) southeast of the border.
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