Please, let's solve immigration and put an end to the bizarre, false narratives and cruelty of Governors, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis and the MAGA hordes.
Please, let's solve immigration and put an end to the bizarre, false narratives and cruelty of Governors, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis and the MAGA hordes.
My best for your Thursday, TAT family,
Yesterday a Federal Judge ruled that Texas must remove their floating buoys in the Rio Grande River that divides the US from Mexico, by September 15th. The floating barrier, 1,000 feet in length is a joke. Our Texas border with Mexico is 1241 miles or 6,552,480 feet. Subtracting 1000 feet from the total still leaves another 6,551,480 feet unprotected. This screams of waste, fraud and abuse by the Texas government.
Greg Abbott and his fellow MAGA Republicans can be seen regularly screeching, like nails on a chalkboard, with a wide array of false narratives and outright lies about our Southern Border. This is not only shameful for honest Texans, but such behavior gets in the way of actually trying to solve our immigration issues.
Abbott, with his preference for high-profile political stunts, began Operation Lonestar, in March of 2021 and ever since, it has been a failed, humiliating and expensive proposition, borne by Texas taxpayers. The Texas DPS (State Police), my congressman, Tony Gonzalez, Ted Cruz, John Cornyn and the rest of elected TX GOP representatives, all echo Abbott’s, wildly dishonest claims about the border, but only since the 2020 election, when the Trump regime was ousted, have they been so shrill.
The Military Times did 4 or 5 scathing articles about the abuse of the Texas National Guard, deployed to the border, chaotically, unsupported and mission-less. Sure, Greg Abbott got his precious publicity but has accomplished almost nothing regarding better border security. Claims that OP Lonestar is working is the rough equivalent of promising Texans that they will catch those pesky and elusive snipes, on a snipe hunt.
End Military Operations at the U.S.-Mexico Border | Brennan Center for Justice
Troops slam Operation Lone Star in leaked survey | The Texas Tribune
Texas Guardsmen stood watch at private ranches for state border mission (militarytimes.com)
Operation Lone Star border mission needs $460 million to stay afloat (militarytimes.com)
Three more states sending National Guard troops to US-Mexico border (militarytimes.com)
Like the national, MAGA controlled GOP, the especially extremist Texas version uses phrases like, “open borders” and “border crisis” like club, to beat other MAGA sheep into alignment with their dishonesty. The difference between GOP talking points and reality is about as far apart as the North and South Poles.
Now that we know that Abbott’s narrative, looks like the south end of a northbound steer, let’s take a moment to see what the real immigration problems are and why, a border wall is a pipedream.
Okay, so here are a handful of the basic truths:
Global migration is now at its highest levels since the end of WW II. The causes are primarily, pandemics, conflicts, food insecurity, drought, oppressive governments etc.
The Obama Administration outperformed the Trump administration regarding border arrests and removals.
The end of Title 42 has brought a 70 % drop in border encounters.
Between the end of Title 42 and the heavy use of DHS’s new app to enroll in the Asylum application process, there has been a sharp drop in illegal border encounters and crossings. This has not stopped Greg Abbott’s, Representative Gonzalez’s and the rest of the TX GOP’s whining and name calling at the current administration. The truth matters if we are to ever have the required immigration system that doesn’t overly tax our system. This is true regardless of which party is in power. False narratives do not solve problems but keep dishonest politicians like Abbott and his party in power.
Will a wall work? The resounding answer, is an emphatic, NO.
The insanity of building an effective brick and mortar wall across the southern border is preposterous at best, insane at worst. In a world of drones and other sensitive technology, there are far better ways. My former GOP congressman, Will Hurd, had some important insights into a far better system that would be built around technology. Sadly, Tony Gonzalez took over for Hurd and his overt dishonesty about the border, long ago made him unworthy of any serious consideration for solutions. Hurd, a former CIA officer is well versed in all manner of national security knowledge and called the Trump border wall a “myth.” Although a Republican, Hurd stood against the insanity of the Trump administration and the MAGA idiocy, which promised everything and delivered nothing but cruelty for immigrants. Cruelty is not an American value.
With global trends in migration, the problems at our Southern border are really problems from far away. As you can see in the Pew Research Report below, the nations providing the most growth in Asylum attempts, come from nations run by oppressive and violent governments with often, horrific living conditions.
What about our other borders and coastlines?
Let’s just say that if we’re smart and make great strides with more effective approaches to our southern border, immigrants will go north to Canada and then enter from a much longer and less secure border. Our coastline defenses are insufficient to secure every beach, cove, bay or otherwise. Although high tech operations could help in these areas too, it will never be enough. As my mother-in-law used to say, “when door closes, look for a window to crawl through.” If someone wishes to enter the country, they will find a way.
This means that by focusing on the root of the problems in foreign nations, we can decrease migration from some of our problem spots, like Central America. The US has long invested in programs in these feeder nations and those programs were valuable but limited tools. In 2019, Trump cut the aid to these programs, and this is why we must have, “comprehensive immigration reform.” In fact, when Trump cut funding to Central American nations where at the time, a large number of our southern border, asylum seekers came from, border encounters spiked, and as you can see in the chart below.
Do new immigrants take away American jobs? NO again and just another myth or false narrative. This is explained here in the embedded link, from The Atlantic.
Summary
As noted, Cruelty is not an American value, especially considering that we are a nation of immigrants. We cannot solve our border problems by building a wall, even if it were possible (it’s not). We can though improve our border security by looking ahead and employing knowledge and reasoning instead of political rhetoric and conspiracy theories. Some of the recommendations that will pay off are the following short list of what should be a long and exhaustive list. Please see below:
Voters must demand real solutions that don’t compromise our values nor have us breaking US and international law.
Improve and evolve the programs in immigrant origin nations that will mitigate the primary drivers of global migration. The US is far from being the nation that suffers the most. Also, make these efforts global in nature and provide proper oversight of the funds being assigned.
Invest massively in technological answers, much along the line of what Will Hurd previously has discussed.
Make it a national security objective to diminish the international causes of migration such as climate change, pandemic, war etc.
Employ narrative-centric influence campaigns that discourage migrants from showing up impromptu at our border without preparing their case for immigration first.
Expand the immigration court systems so they are not overburdened as they are now.
Combat the false narratives of the MAGA crowd whose calls for aggression and cruelty against migrants is not only illegal but a highly humiliating stain on American honor.
Find international partners to support all that is required to manage global migration.
This is just the short list and could easily include another 25 points if there was time enough with my keyboard today.
The most important factor though is to stop all of this ugly political posturing that provides “red meat” to political bases, while concurrently demanding the US and state elected representatives to DO THEIR JOB!
There is no such thing as a liberal or a conservative America. Whatever one party does, affects us all. We cannot progress as a nation if we continue subservience to the anti-patriots like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis to name but a couple. Immigration is how most Americans came to be called a US citizen, at some point or another in their family history. We did not treat the indigenous population well and now we aren’t doing too good with new citizens and applicants either.
An interesting point in all of this discussion is that we really didn’t have much in the way of immigration law until the latter half of the 19th century. Somehow, we managed then and if we try, we can do it again, with or without the US Congress doing their job. It may be their job, but they refuse to do it. Like protecting ourselves from British rule in 1776, we will just have to do it the way the Minutemen did on Lexington Commons, by ourselves.
