County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr. joins Inside Texas Politics to discuss the county’s future.
CAMERON COUNTY, Texas — Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr. says the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown is having an impact on his border community.
“The raids at the Home Depots and Lowes and at construction sites and hotels have had an impact with regards to the workforce,” Judge Treviño told us on Inside Texas Politics. “I’ve heard from the school districts that kids have been missing a lot of school because of the concern that parents have had sending them.”
And if that was the Trump Administration’s goal, Judge Treviño wishes that would have been communicated because he says it is not going over well in his community.
Brownsville is the county seat for Cameron County and Matamoros is its sister city in Mexico just across the international bridge.
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Judge Treviño says bridge crossings are slowly creeping back up to pre-COVID levels, so that is a good sign for cross-border trade. And that, he argues, should have been the focus of border security, as opposed to a crackdown that’s seen many members of their community, some who’ve been there for decades, caught up in raids.
In another development that will help Cameron County’s economy, Starbase became Texas’ newest city after voters approved it in May 2025. Starbase is home to Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the county is expecting to add thousands of more residents.
“They’ve made the decision to move their corporate headquarters from California to Starbase here in Cameron County. So, we’re expecting another couple of thousand in the next year and potentially as many as 4,000 or 6,000 more employees in the next two years. So, that is a positive, positive sign,” said the Judge.