Tag Archives: Texas-Mexico border

A National Shame

Posted on by under Election 2024, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Friends … I don’t even know where to start with this post.  It’s rather like a Rubik’s Cube or a maze or some other puzzle that boggles the mind.  I think maybe the best way to start is with a listing of some of the facts of the matter … the matter, by the way, being the situation at the Texas-Mexico border and the responses to it.  So, here are the facts as I understand them:

  • The number of migrants entering the U.S. from Central and South America has grown and poses significant problems for border states such as Texas. 95% of these migrants are simply fleeing danger or extreme poverty, hoping to provide a better life for their families – they are not coming here for any nefarious purposes.
  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott approved stringing razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande River that separates Texas and Mexico in order to keep the migrants from reaching the U.S.
  • Migrants were getting injured … shredded, as it were, by running into the razor wire while trying to swim across the Rio Grande.
  • On January 12, the Texas National Guard blocked the Border Patrol from assisting migrants in distress, resulting in the death of a woman and two children.
  • The federal government asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed Abbott et al to continue placing razor wire in the river. On January 22nd, the Supreme Court sided with the federal government, giving federal agencies the authority to remove the razor wire.
  • Per the U.S. Constitution, the defining authority, it is the federal government, not the states, that has the power to regulate immigration.
  • Governor Abbott has refused to abide by the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, is refusing to allow Border Patrol agents access to remove the existing razor wire, and is installing still more razor wire in the river.
  • Every Republican governor except one, Vermont’s Phil Scott, has publicly said they support Texas’s right to defy the federal government, with a few even hinting they might send their own state’s National Guard to help Abbott.

  • The U.S. Senate is very close to coming to terms on a bipartisan bill to enhance and repair border security, something that has been considered critical and demanded by Republicans.
  • Donald Trump told his minions in Congress that he does NOT want the border security bill to pass because, a) its passage would help President Biden, and b) he wants to be able to use the “crisis” at the border as a campaign issue this year.
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said that he will abide by Trump’s wishes and that any bill regarding border security would be “dead on arrival”.
  • A truck convoy called “Take Our Border Back Convoy” is heading toward the border from around the nation and is expected to arrive sometime this week.

Those are the facts of the matter.  Media persona like Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec are adding fuel to the fire saying such ridiculous things as this is the beginning of a new civil war and that the Supreme Court Justices who sided with the federal government “deserve to be executed as traitors.”

This is a frightening situation, to say the least, my friends.  With tempers running high during this very contentious election year, and with more guns than people in the nation, the potential for violence on a large scale is high.

There is so much wrong with this situation. Governor Abbott is a fool who obviously either didn’t study or failed to pass Constitutional Law 101.  The Republican governors who are supportive of his perfidy also don’t understand the Constitution and are in violation of their oath of office.  Speaker Mike Johnson has just proven that he is naught more than a Trump toadie who, when told by Donald Trump to “jump”, bends over and asks, “How high, your majesty?”  We no longer have a Congress that works for the best interest of the people … we have a group of highly paid people, half of whom work only for the interests of one Donald F. Trump.

But the biggest thing wrong with this whole thing, in my humble view, is that nobody seems to care about … life.  The people coming across our southern border are not, with very few exceptions, criminals or druggies … they are just people trying to escape a bad situation and make a life for their families.  They are hard-working men & women, they are mothers, fathers, grandparents, and children … babies even.  And they are dying.  Governor Abbott and all those in support of his cruelty are killing these people!  WHERE IS THE HUMANITY???

“What Next?” You Asked …

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Late last night I read Heather Cox Richardson’s daily newsletter, Letters from an American, and the first two paragraphs caused my jaw to drop to the floor.  The lust of some people to turn this nation into an all-white, straight, male-dominated Christian nation has gone too far!!!  I must share that newsletter with you …

January 13, 2024

By Heather Cox Richardson

14 January 2024

Last night a woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande that marks the border between the U.S. and Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas.

U.S. Border Patrol agents knew that a group of six migrants were in distress in the river but could not try to save them, as they normally would, because troops from the Texas National Guard and the Texas Military Department prevented the Border Patrol agents from entering the area where they were struggling: Shelby Park, a 47-acre public park that offers access to a frequently traveled part of the river and is a place where Border Patrol agents often encounter migrants crossing the border illegally.

They could not enter because two days ago, on Thursday, Texas governor Greg Abbott sent armed Texas National Guard soldiers and soldiers from the Texas Military Department to take control of Shelby Park. Rolando Salinas, the mayor of Eagle Pass, posted a video on Facebook showing the troops and saying that a state official had told him that state troops were taking “full control” over Shelby Park “indefinitely.” Salinas made it clear that “[t]his is not something that we wanted. This is not something that we asked for as a city.”

The Texas forces have denied United States Border Patrol officials entry into the park to perform their duties, asserting that Texas officials have power over U.S. officials.

On December 18, Abbott signed into law S.B. 4, a measure that attempts to take into state hands the power over immigration the Constitution gives to the federal government. Courts have repeatedly reinforced that immigration is the responsibility of federal, not state, government, but now, according to Uriel J. García of the Texas Tribune, “some Texas Republicans have said they hope the new law will push the issue back before a U.S. Supreme Court that is more conservative since three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined it.”

On January 3 the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the new law, saying: “Texas cannot run its own immigration system. Its efforts, through S.B. 4, intrude on the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens, frustrate the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings, and interfere with U.S. foreign relations.”

Abbott and MAGA Republicans are teeing up the issue of immigration as a key line of attack on President Joe Biden in 2024, but while they are insisting the issue is so important they will not agree to fund Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s 2022 invasion until it is solved, they are also unwilling to participate in discussions to fund more border officers or immigration courts. Today, once again, Biden reminded reporters that he has asked Congress to pass new border measures since he took office, but rather than pass new laws, Republicans appear to be doubling down on pushing the idea that migrants threaten American society and that an individual state—Texas, in this case—can override federal authority.

Abbott has spent more than $100 million of Texas tax dollars to send migrants to cities led by Democrats. These migrants have applied for asylum and are waiting for a hearing; they are in the U.S. legally. In September 2023, Texas stopped coordinating with nonprofits in those cities that prepared for migrant arrivals.

Yesterday, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker wrote to Abbott, calling him out for choosing “to sow chaos in an attempt to score political points.” Pritzker noted that Abbott is “sending asylum seekers from Texas to the Upper Midwest in the middle of winter—many without coats, without shoes to protect them from the snow—to a city whose shelters are already overfilled with migrants you sent here.” Chicago’s temperatures are set to drop below zero this weekend, Pritzker wrote, and he “strongly urge[d]” Abbott to stop sending people to Illinois in these conditions. “You are dropping off asylum seekers without alerting us to their arrivals, at improper locations at all hours of the night.”

Pritzker wrote that he supports bipartisan immigration reform but “[w]hile action is pending at the federal level, I plead with you for mercy for the thousands of people who are powerless to speak for themselves. Please, while winter is threatening vulnerable people’s lives, suspend your transports and do not send more people to our state. We are asking you to help prevent additional deaths. We should be able to come together in a bipartisan fashion to urge Congress to act. But right now, we are talking about human beings and their survival. I hope we can at least agree on saving lives right now.”

Speaking on the right-wing Dana Loesch Show last week, Abbott said, “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden administration would charge us with murder.” [Emphasis added]
On January 13, 1833, President Andrew Jackson wrote to Vice President–elect Martin van Buren to explain his position on South Carolina’s recent assertion that sovereign states could overrule federal laws. “Was this to be permitted the government would lose the confidence of its citizens and it would induce disunion everywhere. No my friend, the crisis must be now met with firmness, our citizens protected, and the modern doctrine of nullification and secession put down forever…. [N]othing must be permitted to weaken our government at home or abroad,” he wrote.