EAGLE PASS — No border city received more Republican attention in 2024 than Eagle Pass, where Texas’ GOP leaders took over a public park and dispatched thousands of state troopers and Texas National Guard members to patrol the Rio Grande after the city became a hot spot for illegal crossings.
The visitors that year included President Donald Trump, on his way to a second term, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and dozens of other Republicans intent on making border security the election’s defining issue. It worked: Trump won Maverick County with 59% of the vote and carried other counties up and down the border.
