Texas rancher on hook for $60k in damage from migrants: ‘Sad day where we have to force president to act’

A Texas rancher lamented the thousands of dollars in damage to his property caused by illegal immigrants and admitted residents in his county don’t feel safe anymore.

Brent Smith told Fox News host Steve Doocy that he and his Kinney County neighbors can’t enjoy their own backyards due to safety fears as President Joe Biden’s immigration policies have led to a migrant “invasion” in the Texas locality.

“We’ve had a lot of property damage. Our county’s basically at the epicenter of an invasion, in my view,” Smith told “Fox & Friends” on Monday.

Citing damage and loss of property fencing and “extra personnel costs,” the Kinney County attorney noted that some ranchers have incurred extra costs because they have even had to hire private security “to defend their own property rights.”


(Video: Fox News)

“Us Americans, in this part of Texas, we don’t have the same rights as other people do,” Smith told Doocy. “We can’t enjoy our property and go in our backyards anymore at night. It’s a tragedy.”

“Currently there’s no legal recourse landowners have to get any sort of remuneration back from anybody – insurance companies, the federal government which is allowing this migration, nobody?” Doocy asked.

“No, sir. Not at this point,” Smith replied.

“If it’s a stolen vehicle that goes through the property, their [illegal immigrant drivers] vehicle insurance isn’t going to pay for it and ours won’t either so the landowners are stuck with paying for this,” he noted, adding that his property alone has sustained about $60,000 in damage.

He further explained how farmers are liable when livestock is hit by a car after escaping through damaged fencing on the property.

As a county attorney, Smith has reportedly seen an increase in the number of cases he’s prosecuting involving illegal immigrants crossing the southern U.S. border and entering private property in Texas.

“The cartels are in absolute control of both sides of the border right now,” Smith argued on Monday. “We have no control of the border. There is no border.”

He told Doocy that people in the Texas county “don’t even feel safe during the day.”

“If you don’t have a gun with you, you’re taking a chance,” he said. “And it’s sad that that’s the reality we live in today.”

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, has recently introduced a bill that would “establish a program to provide reimbursement to agricultural producers for losses sustained due to illegal immigration.”

Unused coronavirus relief funds, to the tune of some $300 million, would be routed to ranchers to offset the damage sustained due to the migrant surge.

But Smith argued that new laws are not what’s needed.

“We don’t need any new laws,” the rancher said. “We just need a president that actually enforces the laws on the books.”

“It’s a sad day in American history where we have to force our president to act and enforce the laws on the books,” he added.

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Frieda Powers

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