Ups and Downs: Local Businesses in Laredo

Eagle Pass, Texas, has become the epicenter of the national immigration debate. The rise of immigration over the past year has caused the Governor of Texas, Gregg Abbot, to declare a state of emergency sending in the Texas National Guard and with them, a great deal of concertina wire and buoys. This has attracted other Republican governors from around the country to send their support through troops and funding to Eagle Pass, bringing with it a flock of press workers. While in Laredo, a two-hour drive down the border, things look very different. No press, no national guard and nothing between the United States-Mexico border except the Rio Grande. 

The state of local business in these two Texas border cities reflects the differences in which the border crisis is being handled in each town.

Fashion Outlet in Laredo, Texas

The Fashion Outlet is located in downtown Laredo, one of one of the oldest crossing points along the United States-Mexico border, which frequent migrant customers. The store carries all things beauty including clothing, makeup, jewelry, shoes, accessories, and body products. Unlike the businesses in Eagle Pass, one of the biggest issues Maggie Salasa, a Fashion Outlet employee, faces currently with the business is crime. The windows of the storefront have been smashed in multiple times, not by migrants, but by the homeless population in Laredo, leaving the store to pay $300 themselves for each window.

“We could be doing better if we received the help,” Salasa said.

Salasa has contacted police and city officials many times yet has not received any help with these reoccurring crimes. Homelessness and drug use have become a pressing issue in Laredo. Much of the homeless population are natives of Laredo not migrants, according to Salasa. Recently a homeless person overdosed inside of the store during operating hours.

Salasa has been working in the downtown area of Laredo for 20 years. 10 years ago, it was just as difficult for her to receive help from the city or police as it is today, even though there is a police station right down the street.

A few blocks down from the Fashion Outlet is a shelter called Bethany House, with the mission “to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless.” Salasa says that migrants often spend the night there when passing through town. When migrants come into the store, she identifies them mainly by an ankle bracelet, meaning they have just been released from a detainment center. She notices that they often come in groups together once or twice a week, and to her surprise purchase things like makeup and jewelry.

El Pasillo de San Agustin in Laredo, Texas

Sisters, Sandra and Laura Bernal work with their cousin Miguel Rodriguez at the restaurant that was started by their immigrant parents almost 30 years ago, El Pasillo de San Agustin in Laredo. Their mother is from Guadalajara and their father is from Monterrey, Mexico.  

Today, business at the restaurant has been so-so, as they have still not been able to open up a dining area since the pandemic, due to restrictions on renovations, according to Sandra Bernal. Located in the downtown of Laredo, they are surrounded by many historical buildings with strict codes on what you can and cannot renovate. El Pasillo de San Agustin has been strictly take-out since the pandemic hit.

“The building behind us is the oldest building [in Laredo] so we can’t touch it, we can’t do anything,” Bernal said.

People from Nuevo Laredo, the town across the border, frequently come to Laredo to buy goods and sell them back in Mexico at a higher price as foreign goods.

“They need to educate our customs brokers because they are very, very passive-aggressive sometimes and they need to realize that these people are spending thousands of dollars to come here,” Bernal said.

Similarly to Salasa from the Fashion Outlet, Bernal has concerns about the crime in Laredo. The Cartel has taken over all of Nuevo Laredo across the border and as a result an influence over the people of Laredo.

“It’s been very hush, hush but everyone knows it’s there,” Bernal said.

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This project was created through a journalism class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Department. This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club.