Alison Anderson of Del Rio, Texas, wants what any good mother wants for her three young daughters — to have a safe and healthy childhood. But for Anderson, the wife of a Border Patrol agent, keeping her children safe means always keeping a gun within reach.
Her family lives within walking distance of the Rio Grande on a 20-acre “ranchito” covered in dense brush. It happens to be surrounded by several roads, making it a key strategic location for the types of illegal aliens who want to enter the country completely undetected, likely violent criminals and drug peddlers who’d risk deportation if they came through a port of entry.
In her household, the border crisis isn’t a blip on a news cycle — it’s a reality that governs the family’s day-to-day life.
“We’ve had convicted rapists caught on their way to our property,” Anderson lamented. Criminals of all types, including people wanted for manslaughter and aggravated kidnapping of a minor, flocked to their previous property.
“I’m not heading out there without this,” Anderson said, motioning to the revolver in her right hand. “Out there” meant her own backyard, less than four miles from the southern border.
The constant danger has rattled her family, particularly her oldest daughter. At only seven years-old, she’s been confronted by the crisis of illegal immigration in ways that most Americans never will. One experience stands out in particular.
Late one night after Anderson’s husband had left for a night shift, she tucked her children into bed. It wasn’t long before her daughter came bolting into the hallway, panicking while she cried “Mommy mommy, there’s bad guys at my window.” Anderson picked up a firearm, stepped outside, and confronted the group.
Border Patrol wife tells @realDailyWire that an illegal immigrant knocked on her seven year-old daughter's window late at night.
"Mommy, mommy, there's bad guys at my window."
"I grabbed my firearm and I went out and had to push a group of illegals off of our property." pic.twitter.com/IHY8f6X8AS
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) May 24, 2023
The authorities took 38 minutes to arrive. The migrants were not caught.
It wasn’t the first time Anderson was forced to grab her gun. “I had to put my baby down and grab my firearm,” she explained, describing the terror she felt as she had to set down her six-month-old to stop a break-in by a male migrant at her former property.
She can’t count on law enforcement to keep them safe. “We’ve had cases where law enforcement won’t even show up … because of how overwhelmed they are,” she lamented as the gravel of her two-track road crunched under our boots. “They are constantly now dealing with smuggling cases.”
With authorities overwhelmed, migrants are never apprehended on her property, which in turn means it is impossible to tell exactly who is hiding out on her land or crossing it in the middle of the night. Anderson can say, however, that she has never seen a family unit coming through the acreage. Rather, it’s almost exclusively used by fighting age men, particularly those who want to evade the authorities at the ports of entry.
She noticed a dramatic shift after the Biden administration took office. Anderson didn’t mince words when asked who she blames for the migrant crisis. “The Biden administration, 100%,” she exclaimed without hesitation.
As we walked along the same path that migrant smugglers walk along her property, she shed light on how migrants, unencumbered by the threat of consequence, had become emboldened over the past couple years.
One night when she was out feeding the animals, she heard a woman yelling on her cellphone, complaining that her smuggler was late to pick her up.
Her neighbor saw the same audacity firsthand when he found migrant men hiding in his boat — and drinking beer they’d pilfered from his fridge.
Anderson told The Daily Wire that after Biden was elected, “it was group after group after group that was coming through our property,” before adding “They realized that there were no consequences.”
It suddenly seemed as if the migrants didn’t even care whether they were detected as they made their trek into the United States and through Anderson’s property. “Usually you would see them at night,” but that wasn’t necessarily the case anymore. “Now it can be noon on a Sunday and there will be dopers” coming through the property with large backpacks.
Changes in Washington had tangible consequences for those in Del Rio. “It really affects the families that are down here living on the border that are raising their kids down here on the border,” Anderson asserted.
“The kids don’t deserve to be raised in this, having to worry about who’s going to walk out on them from their own backyard … or who is coming up knocking on their window in the middle of the night, trying to lure them to the window, she added.”
Del Rio, TX, 4 miles from the Rio Grande — Wife of Border Patrol agent speaks out against Biden’s border policy:
“The kids don’t deserve to be raised in this … They shouldn’t have to worry about … who’s coming up knocking on their window in the middle of the night.” pic.twitter.com/FHbNVPerue
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) May 23, 2023
It isn’t just her daughters, ages seven, five, and two, who she worries about. Her husband, a Border Patrol agent, works a dangerous profession that has only gotten riskier in the last two years.
“Watching the increased risk that this administration is putting our agents in is a huge concern of mine,” Anderson remarked, adding that agents are now “seeing more combativeness than compliance.” “I remember when there were no assaults … we’re empowering these illegals based on there not being any consequences.”
Assault and use of force cases against the Border Patrol agents who work on the southern border — agents like Anderson’s husband — have surged since the Biden Administration took office.
While there were 439 assaults against Border Patrol agents on the border in fiscal year 2020, the number climbed to 548 in 2021 and 624 in 2022. Now in 2023, there have already been 305 recorded assault incidents. Weapon and ammunition seizures similarly increased on the border from 2020 to 2021 and again from 2021 to 2022.
But it isn’t just the danger that bothers Anderson. It’s also what she sees as the fruitlessness of Border Patrol operations neutered by an unfriendly administration.
“That general risk that always exists with them going to work as an agent is skyrocketing. And honestly at this point, for what? They can work all day in the heat, sweat through their uniforms, catch a group, bring them in, and watch them get processed and released.”
“I just don’t understand how this administration can literally throw our agents to the wolves and have a complete disregard for their safety,” the Border Patrol wife charged.
Our conversation was punctuated with an occasional “BAAAAA” from Mustachio, a sheep who owes his name to the kids. By turning a seemingly peaceful home into a thoroughfare for smugglers and criminals, the migrant crisis has taken a toll on Anderson too.
“I don’t sleep much,” she admitted candidly while walking along the meager remnants of her back fence. All that remained were worn out wooden posts. It wasn’t worth the time, money, or effort to repair a fence that’d just be cut through again, she explained.
Life on the border means living under “constant threat.” Simple tasks like feeding livestock can turn into life-or-death situations in a matter of seconds. She explained that in one instance on her former property, a migrant ran out of the brush and chased her. Anderson was able to kick open a gate to release her dog, buying herself just enough time to get back to the house where her daughters were sleeping.
It all led Anderson to an unfortunate conclusion: that her family had been betrayed, that the interests of illegal aliens had taken precedence over the safety and wellbeing of American citizens.
“I can’t walk into an emergency room and have every ailment that I want to come up with assessed … without paying a dime. I can’t get free housing. I can’t get the same benefits as an American in this country that illegals are being given.”
I ask: "Do you believe illegal aliens are being prioritized over you, over your daughters, over American citizens?"
Wife of Border Patrol agent responds: "I do. I wholeheartedly do . . . I don't understand how Americans aren't the priority." pic.twitter.com/ahh49FdNjA
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) May 24, 2023
In Anderson’s eyes, the migrant crisis isn’t just a matter of personal safety. It’s a national crisis. “I don’t understand how Americans aren’t the priority.” She went on to warn “We can’t keep moving in the direction we’re moving in and expect to be the land of the free.”
What other Americans watch on a handful of news outlets, the Andersons witness firsthand. While other Americans hear about the migrant crisis from talking heads, Anderson’s seven-year-old daughter hears the migrant crisis tapping on her window. That which so many other Americans are unaware of, the Andersons know all too well.
But Alison has only a humble request for America. When asked what she wants our country to know about the migrant crisis on our southern border, she said simply: “That it’s real.”
Alison Anderson’s interview will be featured in an upcoming mini-documentary from The Daily Wire, which will be posted on our YouTube channel.
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