From 2000 to 2010 the population of Starr County increased from 53,597 to 60,968.

As of 2011 Starr County has about 55 colonias.

The area includes Starr County, by many indicators the poorest in the country.

The overall effect is devastating: almost half the adults in Starr County have Type 2 diabetes.

Starr County has 15 physicians; the ratio of residents to doctors is 3,412 to 1.

And over the years, Starr County has become addicted - not necessarily to drugs, but to their greenback high.

In Starr County, even those with a public profile seemed disinclined to express their opinions.

In the 1970s and into the 1980s, federal law enforcement officials concentrated their anti-drug smuggling efforts on Starr County.

"And I guess it's everybody's problem in the whole Starr County."

In 1895, he started a cattle ranch in what was then northern Starr County.