When Travis Roberts, 60, a former Dallas antiques importer, arrived in the city two decades ago, the city was so empty that he could buy a house for as little as $2,000, he says. “I bought 39 houses,” he said, smoking a cigarette in the cluttered office space of Sanderson’s largest store, which sells hardware, Mexican pottery and, at a reasonable price, a huge metal Tyrannosaurus rex. Over the years, he was able to resell all the houses.
“We came for the school,” said Mr. Roberts, a store owner whose three sons went to the Sanderson Schools and then to Rice University.
Mr. Roberts, who grew up in nearby Marathon, has complained about how the tightening of the border has affected neighboring communities. “Before, they could be made to work,” he said of the men who had come from Mexico. “Now it’s against the law to hire them, so we only get the bad and nothing good.”
The city is also undergoing a different kind of change as the economy of West Texas tourist attractions – Big Bend National Park, Martha’s artistic harbor – expands. The local motel has been refurbished. Since December there is even a place where you can have a cup of coffee besides the gas station.
“We love coffee, but we’ve never had a coffee shop,” said Jake Harper, 41, a contractor and glass blower who moved from San Antonio with his wife Hannah, a Pilates instructor, and three children. They opened a Ferguson Motors coffee shop in a former Ford dealership. “There is a misconception that the border is dangerous. But this is the safest place. The community is open and generous.”
There are few voices of dissent. Mr. Chandler, a part-time pastor and one of the few openly gay residents of Sanderson, said he spoke at local meetings challenging authorities over migrant rhetoric, which he considered “inhumane.” But mostly he was alone.