Texas pecan farmer says unsecured border is wreaking havoc on farmers' safety and equipment

Texas pecan farmer and second-generation Mexican-American Jennifer Ivey says her family’s life and livelihood vastly improved when former President Donald Trump stepped up construction of the wall along the southern U.S. border.

Now conditions have turned perilous, she says, because the U.S. Border Patrol has been overrun by the Biden-era migrant surge. 

"Before the wall was built, all night long, the dogs were barking," Ivey recently told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "It was a constant issue with illegals crossing – whether they were dropping drugs or human trafficking or whatever was going on, we were never safe. Once that wall was put in place, everything changed."

Trump ran his winning 2016 campaign in large part on expanding the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to stop the flow on illegal migration.

"It became a different world for us because our equipment wasn't being stolen. It wasn't being vandalized, and we weren't having to be worried about the safety of our employees," Ivey continued. "I guess, in a sense, we were getting to experience what it was like to have safety and security."

In March 2021, Ivey's husband, Kevin Ivey, was honored at the annual West Texas Pecan Growers Association dinner. 

In 2020, Jennifer Ivey ran for the state Board of Education in District 1 of Texas. 

She says the Biden administration's border policies – including the recent ending of Title 42 that limited migration during the pandemic – has resulted in increased border crossings, which have over-burdened agents. 

"Our border patrol cannot do their job if they're processing thousands and thousands of illegals," Ivey said.

She suggests one problem is that immigrants are getting in because of the confusion that has resulted from the frequently changing government policies and protocols to gain entry into the U.S. 

"What's the most scary is that there are people who are still breaking through and not following the protocol because the protocols change," Ivey said. "They have all of the illegals going through the ports of entry. We don't have as much traffic coming through. But we still don't have any border patrol guarding our country, because they're all locked up processing."

According to an April 2023 report, Border Patrol agents encountered 211,401 migrants at the southern U.S. border. That figure marked a 10% increase from the March total of 191,956.

Ivey said so many illegal immigrants in the region has also increased residents' cost of living.

"Us having to provide for all of these illegals has cost us to pay more," Ivey said. "So we have to pay more for everything: fuel, fertilizer. All the way across the board, our costs have gone up I would say an estimated about 300%."

According to Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texans pay in taxes between $579 million and $717 million per year for public hospital districts to provide uncompensated care for illegal aliens.  

"Our business is completely and totally at the mercy of all of these social programs that are being put together to keep these illegals, I guess comfortable," Ivey said.