STARR COUNTY, Texas – Ruperto Escobar is the first to admit his stance on the border wall is controversial and unpopular.
"I would say I'm more than likely in the minority. Most people don't want a wall," said Escobar.
Escobar's family has lived on his land for 250 years. During that time they've had encounters with human smugglers and drug traffickers.
"One night, there was two men standing there with AK 47s. I wasn't here that night. It was two guys working for me, helping me irrigate, and at 10 p.m., they were going to shut the engine down and those guys told them, 'Get out of here we own this place now. We are going to own it tonight,'" Escobar said. Escobar admits he doesn't believe a border wall will end illegal activity but he's hopeful it'll slow it down.
''If they climb over it, they aren't going to climb over it as fast as they walk through it right now. That barrier is going to slow them down enough to where our (Border Patrol) agents can catch them a lot easier," Escobar said.
If a wall isn't built, Escobar said he and his neighbors will continue to have problems with people trespassing on their property.
"They run through the gates, they run through your fences. They mess your property up, and the next day. when I'm trying to repair it there's no one to blame," said Escobar.
Escobar said surveyors have come out to his land to see if a border wall is possible on his property.
“This gentleman, Mr. Trump, is saying that by building a wall, a good bunch of this nonsense is going to stop. Why can’t we understand that? Let’s do it,” Escobar said.