The little town of Cleveland, Texas, is only 30 miles northeast of Houston, but feels a million miles from anywhere, which might explain why some builders and politicians thought they could get away with creating Colony Ridge, a 60-square-mile development awash in illegal immigrants, cartels, and crime.
TEXAS GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES CRACKDOWN ON MASSIVE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY NEAR MAJOR CITY
Over the years, predatory loans have attracted many illegal immigrants to the area, possibly doubling the local population, and straining local resources to a breaking point. But on Monday, both federal and state law enforcement, under the command of border czar Tom Homan, raided Colony Ridge, arresting 118 people, some of them violent repeat offending criminals, sending shock waves, and some hope, through the community.
Columnist David Marcus, in the red shirt, with Cleveland, Texas, residents Jason, George Cuellar, and Tyler.
George Cuellar is a co-owner of the Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill, and has lived in Cleveland for most of his 53 years. He has watched in horror as the settlement sprang up.
"Colony Ridge never made any sense," he told me of the thousands of cheap houses put up in the last seven years. "There’s no industry or nothing. There’s nothing for these people to do. It just makes powerful people rich."
When I asked him where the community first started noticing a problem, he told me it was the schools. A massive influx of new students, many who do not speak English, has taken a taxing toll on the community.
This was eerily similar to what I heard last fall in Springfield, Ohio, which is famously dealing with a similar onslaught of migrants.
Patrons at George Cuellar's Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill, in Cleveland, Texas, say the illegal immigrants have changed the community's character.
Cuellar is not without sympathy. Forty years ago, he was learning English in the Cleveland school system. "I learned fast, I had to learn to talk to girls," he told me.
Travis and Jason were getting some after-work grub at the Wagon Wheel, and they added that the next big warning sign was a significant increase in crime. "It was never like this," they told me. "Now we've got murders once a week, it seems like."
In fact, on Monday, in the midst of the Homeland Security raids, a fatal stabbing took place in the Plum Grove section of Colony Ridge, sadly, an all-too-common occurrence these days.
Cuellar put me in touch with Maria Acevedo, an activist who helped a Daily Wire reporter break this story back in 2023. She plainly told me that, "Everyone is the victim here, including the illegal immigrants."
Acevedo, who is Hispanic herself, dealt with accusations of racism when she started highlighting the problems at Colony Ridge. But now, she tells me, those problems have become so self-evident, that those accusations have all but disappeared.
Regarding Monday’s raid, the locals I spoke with expressed a cautious optimism. They were glad to see it but, "arresting 118 people is not going to fix the problem," Cuellar told me. Acevedo agreed, adding that she hoped it wasn’t just for show.
It is in places like Cleveland, Texas and Springfield, Ohio, that we see the true wages of former President Biden’s disastrous immigration policies. Sure, an overflowing Roosevelt Hotel in New York, a city of 9 million, is a problem, but doubling the population of a town of 8,000 souls with illegal immigrants is a flat-out crisis.
The problem in places like Cleveland and Springfield is that little to no effort is made to integrate the influx of newcomers into the towns. Normally, Cuellar would be thrilled with a population increase, but none of the migrants come to his restaurant, or participate in the town’s life at all. And in a small town that is a huge deal, these are places where everyone says hello to each other.
When Tyler moved here from New Jersey to take care of his mom he planned to sleep in a tent until he got on his feet, but then he met Jason, who had a room for him. That is how these communities function, but unlike Tyler, most of the illegals here never become part of that community.
Colony Ridge, Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colo., are just the small towns that we have heard about suffering the punishing impact of massive illegal immigration. It is probably impossible to know just how many areas are suffering in a similar manner.
Monday’s raid was a welcome first step for residents of Cleveland, but here, and all across America, there is much more work to be done, not just to close down the border, but to figure out how to handle the millions of illegal migrants who are already here.