By Karen Gleason
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part interview. Look for the second part Friday.
Del Rio Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano has been speaking to anyone and everyone who will listen about the rising tide of illegal immigrants flooding through the area.
Lozano has been interviewed by media outlets large and small, from the national to the local, and has been an outspoken critic of the laws and policies that are allowing the current migrant surge.
Lozano told the 830 Times one of the reasons he has been so vocal about the situation is the timing of the first wave of the surge.
“It all started when we were trying to manage the winter weather disaster in the city of Del Rio on and after Feb. 14, and the frustration came when I was trying to manage, along with our emergency management coordinator and response teams, how to provide the appropriate response to our citizens and our community locally,” Lozano said.
He said he received his first notification that groups of migrants would be released into the community Feb. 16, less than two days after the city’s first snowstorm.
“I was trying to deal with personally not having any electricity at my home and much of the community not having electricity, and then we didn’t have running water, and my frustration grew from that moment on, because it was obvious the federal government was not paying attention to how they are affecting municipal governments,” he said.
“We were responding to our community’s needs first. (The migrant release) just placed us between a rock and a hard place. That’s where it emanated from, and that’s where it started, this most recent frustration and my speaking out about it,” Lozano added.
The mayor said he was somewhat frustrated during the 2019 migrant surge under the Trump administration, but said he believed the Trump administration began to enact policies that were effective because those policies did not give immigrants the incentive to cross into the U.S. illegally.
Lozano said he knew when he began speaking out most recently that some media outlets and networks would play up the current immigrant situation more than others, a symptom, he said, “of our split and polarized nation.”
“At the same time, I’m not just going to sit here as a mayor, who is a registered Democrat, and not share my frustrations over the current situation. I feel that it’s my duty to protect my community. That’s who I was elected to represent – Del Rioans. My perspective on this entire matter currently is that there’s no plan, and that’s where the story took off,” Lozano said.
Lozano also made an attempt to reach President Joe Biden personally.
“I did a video upload that Wednesday (Feb. 17). We sent it via Twitter, and I believe that was shared thousands of times, the frustration that we were dealing with in our community. That was the only form of direct contact that I’ve attempted to the president,” Lozano said.
The mayor said he has spoken to other federal policymakers, but added he isn’t sure if the urgency of his message is being understood.
“I always feel smaller communities like Eagle Pass, Del Rio and Carrizo Springs are oftentimes overlooked in the planning processes for the Department of Homeland Security just because of our size. They see smaller numbers entering our communities, so we’ll have the max in one day, under 1,000, where Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley will have 3,000 or more, so they’re not looking at what that actually means in the community.
“Laredo’s 200,000 people. When you add up all the Valley cities, that’s half a million people. We don’t have those established facilities. We don’t have non-profit groups that are the size of the ones in those communities, so 900 people a day and the average now is 700 people a day, it’s overlooked, and I think they say, ‘Oh those are small numbers, they can handle it,’” Lozano said.
“If they’re going to release migrants while the community is without power and running water, that tells you enough about the disconnect and miscommunications at all levels of government when it comes to this issue,” the mayor added.
