Billboards from Texas to Mexico and Central America warn migrants they will ‘regret’ crossing the border

Texas is launching a $100,000 poster campaign in Mexico and Central America to highlight the risks of illegal entry into the state, including incarceration and sexual assault.

“We are here to expose the truth to immigrants who are considering coming here. The truth about the traffickers who molest so many women and children along the way,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday at a news conference at a private ranch in Eagle Pass.

About 40 billboards began going up Wednesday along major migration routes in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, warning that illegal entry into the United States through Texas risks incarceration by the state and the authorities and rape by the traffickers who take them across the border.

The new effort comes as the state purchases ranch land for possible mass eviction sites and as Abbott considers nearly $3 billion for border initiatives.

A billboard warns that wives and daughters will “pay for their journey with their bodies.”

“How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?” » another bed. “A lot of girls are raped by the coyotes you hire.”

Another: “Danger ahead. If you enter Texas illegally, you will regret it forever.

“They inform potential illegal immigrants of the reality of what will happen to them if they try to enter Texas illegally,” Abbott said.

The billboards “tell horror stories about human trafficking,” Abbott said. “The message is: don’t risk a dangerous journey just to be arrested and deported. »

About 85 percent of undocumented immigrants in Texas come from Mexico and Central America, with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala accounting for three of the top five countries of origin, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

The billboards will be displayed in multiple languages, including Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic, Abbott said.

In Mexico, billboards – mainly along the border with Texas – warn of legal consequences once they cross the Rio Grande.

“Stop,” reads one, with letters superimposed over a photo of someone’s wrists in handcuffs. “If you cross the border into Texas illegally, you will be imprisoned.”

Abbott said Texas “has done and will continue to do whatever it takes to make sure we take control of ongoing illegal immigration,” including aggressively stopping undocumented immigrants in Texas and working with President-elect Donald Trump on mass deportation plans.

Billboard messages and remarks Thursday in Eagle Pass focused more on the risks of sexual abuse by traffickers than arrest by authorities — an effort to dissuade people from even considering making the trip in Texas, Abbott said.

“There is a largely unspoken sexual assault crisis affecting women and children who migrate to the Texas border,” said Rose Luna, CEO of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, a victims’ advocacy group. She spoke alongside Abbott in Eagle Pass. “Recognizing this problem and its profound impact on survivors is not only crucial, it is our responsibility. The stories of the women who made this journey are heartbreaking.

Luna said she gave a presentation at an immigration center in Williamson County, north of Austin, in recent years and was amazed by the women who lined up to tell stories about the violence they had suffered from traffickers on their way to Texas.

“It was heartbreaking,” Luna said Thursday. “One of them said that the violence they were trying to escape was the violence they had experienced during their journey here. It reminds us that there is evil and suffering in this journey.

Kimberly Wall, one of the owners of Eagle Pass Ranch, said three people have been found murdered on their property in the past year. They also encountered women who were “found beaten and raped in front of our house, left to die in the drainage ditches,” she said.

“It terrifies you to come out of your own house and enjoy your own property,” Wall said. “It’s scary when you can’t go onto your own property and you’re told if you do, to carry a gun for protection because you don’t know if you’ll be attacked by one men hidden in the bushes. »

It is difficult to obtain statistics on the number of undocumented immigrants who have been sexually assaulted while traveling to the United States. Advocacy groups, such as Amnesty International, say women and girls traveling with traffickers are particularly vulnerable. Investigations by various media outlets have revealed hundreds of reports written by women.

Abbott unveiled the plan less than a month before the Legislature began debating the state budget — including the governor’s request for new funds for his Operation Lone Star border security initiative, which has already cost $11 billion to taxpayers.

He was joined Thursday by Texas Border Czar Mike Banks, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Freeman Martin, Texas Adjutant General Maj. Thomas Suelzer, Texas Association CEO against sexual assault, Rose Luna, and private ranchers, Kimberly and Martin Wall.

A recording of the event can be seen on Abbott’s Facebook page.

Abbott’s border policies thrust him into the national spotlight earlier this year when he refused to reverse federal orders to remove buoys and barbed wire from the Rio Grande River, which constitutes the border between Texas and Mexico.

His fight began years ago.

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, deploying National Guard troops and state troopers to the border with Mexico after expressing frustration with President Joe Biden’s enforcement-related policies of immigration.

The goal was to make border crossings more difficult by installing barbed wire and other physical barriers along the Rio Grande. As part of the operation, law enforcement began arresting suspected undocumented migrants for trespassing and other criminal charges.

For the next legislative session, which begins in January, Abbott wants the new funds to cover border security operations through 2027 — including buses, barriers, migrant processing centers and a full-time employee to manage funds, according to their budget request. .

Critics of the governor’s initiatives say the funding request — which would put the money in Abbott’s disaster fund — would give him too much discretion over tax dollars to spend on dangerous and ineffective programs .

However, officials in Abbott’s office point to the decline in the number of crossings as evidence of the success of his programs.

This week’s announcement comes after the state purchased a ranch in Rio Grande City. Texas officials have proposed it as a site for detention centers to help the new Trump administration with its mass deportation proposals. Parts of a border wall have already been built on the site.

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said the state is seeking additional land to support the federal effort.