Jim and Sue Chilton own a ranch in Arizona on the U.S.-Mexico border. Every time Jim leaves the house, Sue fears he won’t come back alive, she said Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Our house has been broken into twice,” Sue told convention delegates. “A Border Patrol agent was shot five times by drugs smugglers on our ranch. The cartel drug smugglers are crossing our nation’s border every day. They are bringing lethal drugs into our country.”
The Chiltons’ security cameras have spotted more than 3,500 drug traffickers and others in camouflage marching through their ranch, according to Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher in Arivaca.
“These are not asylum-seekers,” he said. “It looks like and it feels like an invasion, because it is.”
Things were different when Donald Trump was president, the Chiltons believe.
“Under President Donald Trump, it wasn’t like this, and if we bring him back,” Jim Chilton said, “I know he’ll stop it again.”
“We know firsthand that Biden’s open border is our nation’s greatest national security threat,” he continued. “We need to make America safe again.”
Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was almost finished on the Chilton family’s ranch when Biden became president and halted construction of the wall.
“Since then, crossings on our ranch have increased fivefold,” Jim Chilton said.
“We must elect Donald Trump to finish the wall, to stop the cartels, to keep America safe and strong,” he said.
The crowd erupted with several resounding cheers of “Build that wall!”
David Lara, owner of a small business who lives in a border town, said small towns like his bear the brunt of the border chaos.
“Imagine strangers terrorizing your homes, your neighbors, your yards, the local schools,” Lara said. “Imagine being treated as second-class citizens as chaos and crime terrorize streets.”
“I don’t have to imagine this,” he continued. “I’ve watched it with my own eyes. I’ve seen my town suffer.”
Lara blames the Biden administration’s border policies.
“Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris want the illegal immigration crisis to continue, and no amount of suffering has changed their mind or convinced them to finally put Americans first,” he said.
“We must reelect President Trump to close the border the crime and stop the drug from pouring in,” Lara said. “We must reelect President Trump to imprison and deport violent gang members, instead of coddling them as they terrorize our nation.”