VALENTINE, Texas — Ranchers in West Texas are being impacted by the influx of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in June alone, there were more than 188,000 apprehensions.
4,500 of those apprehensions have been in the Big Bend Sector.
That is where the Alfred Means Ranch has been nestled, right near the Davis Mountains, since 1880.
The family tells me migrants have been crossing through their land but not at the rate they are seeing now.
Dozens of migrants every single month and the ranchers have had enough.
“It’s more than an influx, in my opinion, it’s an evasion," Shelly Means said. "And we are reaping the repercussions of it.”
The Means family says since March, hundreds of migrants have crossed through their land.
“You just don’t know who are these people are, you don’t know what they would do to you or to someone else," Evan Means, the rancher's daughter, said. "We have them break water lines, break barns, fences are cut, gates are left open...they broke into our guest house and left the shower on for however long and we opened the door and the whole house is just ruined."
The Means say Border Protection agents have told the ranch families to do what is necessary to protect themselves because they too are overwhelmed by the increase in migrant crossings.
“Just me going out on a morning walk...I’ve been asked to not do that anymore," Shelly said. "The people that are coming across aren’t just the everyday people looking for a job anymore."
Shelly worries about the type of people crossing through their land.
"The people who are coming across are carrying drugs, they’re child molesters, they're murderers," Shelly said. "You know it shouldn’t be left up to us to decipher who’s nice and who’s not.”
While Border Protection is just one call away, it is that in-between time that worries the Means family.
“If I was working with my horses, just at the barn or even at the house by myself and some kind of a big group came up," Evan said. "I don’t know what I would...I don’t know how far border patrol agents are and how far law enforcement agents are. ”
Shelly took these disturbing images of migrants they have found injured on their ranch.
Migrants hurt traveling through West Texas terrain
The Means often go from ranchers to caretakers.
“What happens to them in their travels is life and death," Shelly said. "Just the other day one of our friends that ranches south of Highway 90, his foreman was riding his horse down the road and saw two guys and realized it was immigrants."
Shelly tells us it was a father and son, the son was 16 years old and the dad was trying to revive him.
"It's horrible--this has to stop," she said. "We feel like it’s our government’s duty to protect the border and protect its people. Not only us but the people who are coming across. I mean they die of thirst, we help them every day in some way or another.”
The Means family wants action. Shelly has started a group called Concerned Far West Texans for Legal Immigration.
The group hopes to meet with Governor Greg Abbott in the upcoming weeks and get more resources for our area.