17:40

About 90% Hispanic and on the border with Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas was never going to be fertile ground for Donald Trump. Still, some of his small group of supporters tried to make their voices heardon Tuesday afternoon, as a few traded chants and barbs with a bigger group of Hillary Clinton backers across a busy road in the city of McAllen, Texas.

Voters wait in line to cast ballots at an early polling site in San Antonio, Texas. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Sporting a red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, Adrian Garza arrived in an SUV with “Hillary 4 Prison” scrawled in white paint on a window.

“I was born in Mexico, I know what he’s talking about. I was naturalized when Bill Clinton was president, I did it correctly,” said the 50-year-old truck driver. “I support Trump because I got his message at the beginning - a message of something being corrected in immigration. The law has not been enforced the way it should.”

Travelling around town, Garza said, his visible support of Trump has led to some strangers “yelling at me or even flipping the finger at me. I don’t mind. I’d love to talk to every single one of them so I could tell them why Trump is the right person.”

Garza said that Trump’s business acumen would help him follow through on his pledge to build a gigantic border wall and make Mexico pay for it. “I hope he wins. I’m praying that he does because it’s our last shot, like he says. If he doesn’t win, I think this country’s going to get worse. More terrorism will happen, jobs won’t come back,” he said.

Lalo Martinez wore a T-shirt with an image of Trump and the slogan “WASHINGTON DC YOU’RE FIRED”. The 42-year-old, while optimistic on a national level, was under no illusions about his favoured candidate’s local prospects. “Down here you could be the Pope and you would still lose if you’re Republican,” he said.

