Mary Ann Mendoza, left, an “angel mother” whose son, a police officer, was killed after being struck by an illegal immigrant driving drunk; Diane Ventura; and Lynn Ryan, a member of a “Mom's Caravan,” pose at the border crossing in Hidalgo, Texas.

A recent trip to an American-Mexican border crossing in Texas was an eye-opening experience for Diane Ventura of Center Township.

Ventura, a spokeswoman for the American Border Foundation, which is raising money to help fund construction of a border wall, spent a couple days at the crossing in Hidalgo, Texas, with a group of mothers who deal with people illegally crossing the border near their homes.

“My life has changed forever after seeing what I saw at the border,” Ventura said Wednesday, a day after she returned from the Moms Caravan trip, which was organized by Moms for America, a nonprofit formed in 2004 to promote liberty.

The trip was planned to draw attention to the dangers and financial cost of illegal immigration before the caravan of Central Americans, which is traveling through Mexico, arrives at the United States border on or around Nov. 20. Several “angel mothers” and members of the Remembrance Project, who say they lost children and family members due to violence committed by illegal immigrants, also went on the trip.

“Eight mothers met with us. They live in different border towns in Texas. They shared what they're dealing with now and what is been like through the years,” Ventura said.

The mothers told the border supporters that they can't go outside at night because illegal immigrant activity.

“They said their kids can't play outside from dusk to dawn. Nobody can be in their yards in the evening because, when it gets dark, people who have been hiding in the grass during the day start to make a run for it,” Ventura said.

According to Ventura, the mothers told her that illegal immigrants knock on the doors of residents' homes at night asking to use their phones and pleading for help.

“The doors start knocking at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, They want to use the phone. They ask, 'Please can you help me,'” Ventura said.

A pair of illegal immigrants tried to use the group as cover, she said.

“Two immigrants were laying in the grass and they tried to blend in with our group to evade border patrol, but they were arrested. They already swam across the Rio Grande,” Ventura said.

The group visited a school that is surrounded by a fence that is locked at night.

“We visited a school that was fenced in. They have fencing around homes, stores, everything. Schools are fenced and locked at night,” she said.

A couple who lives in Hidalgo told the group that they had to close their swimming pool because illegal immigrants used it to take baths at night, Ventura said.

The group also heard gunshots while they were at the crossing, she said.

“This is a danger that not just the border towns are dealing with. This is a danger across America,” Ventura said. “You can't walk into Canada. There aren't thousands of people trying to get into Mexico. They're not coming in the front door where we can welcome them. They are breaking in the back door when it's dark and we can't sustain it.”