Well, here goes. Today Apr 3, 2019. City leaders in the Rio Grande
Valley and their counterparts in Mexico met to discuss what the impact of the
border closure could have on our area. Also to be discussed is how to present what
those impacts would have on us in our region along the border to our officials
in Washington. Before I go any further, there some things that should be made
crystal clear before you make any judgments.
Americans living along the border here are fully aware of
the immigration problem along our border because we deal with it 24-7-365. We
way down here in the RGV are feeling left out of the decision or not asked for
our opinion while people in the northern states have already made up their minds
about the border issues, especially the Liberals and Leftist who are making
decisions solely to deny our President without any regard to the Americans
living along the US / Mexico border.
To put things in perspective, what if Americans from Texas
to Southern California supported the proposal the shut down of the US /
Canadian border because we believed that Canadians are taking advantage of the
US? How would that closure affect YOU personally along our northern border? How
would that affect YOUR local economy?
By my estimation, about 80% of Americans in the RGV are opposed
to illegal immigration because it drains our resources and it creates other
social ills in our communities. Most of us
here in the Rio Grande Valley fully understand that both border economies are
dependent on each other. A border closure would devastate the economy here and
other areas along the border. Business here is already dropping and the long
term effects are unknown.
The US imported around $1.3 billion in avocados alone. Are
you ready to live without guacamole? How about tomatoes, bananas, or nuts?
When the original border fence was proposed, most local
residents in the RGV were opposed to the wall being put up but not for the
reasons most non border Americans thought. When the original wall was being proposed,
I was in training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
During a class, our instructor asked for a raise of hands from
those that were for the border wall. Most of the Anglos who were from north
Texas raised their hands while most of the against raised hands came from
Hispanics from south Texas who opposed the border fence. The following heated discussion
was a lesson on looking at the entire issue and not making decisions on one
particular aspect of the problem or on emotion.
Most of the pro fence supporters believed we didn’t want the
fence because we wanted to allow our extended family members to enter the US.
Fact was, 98% of us don’t even have any relatives in Mexico because we are third
and fourth generation Americans born in the US.
White folks, Oh. We thought…..
Border Hispanics: Cool with immigration as long as it’s legal
and we don’t lose our land. You cool with that Herr Schwartz?
The border issue at hand is about illegal immigration and
the broken system that was not designed to address the problem we have at hand
today. The problem the local citizens and Hispanics had with the issue was that
Americans’ farm lands and private properties would be lost to the placement of
the fence. The environmental issues were another reason. As of today, many farmers
have land south of the border wall, longtime residences are south of the wall
now, the TSC College campus had a large portion of it’s campus left south of
the wall and native wildlife no longer have access to food and water from the
river.
No Man’s Land 6:55
This past week in the RGV, a poll was taken here and it revealed
that 75% of Valley residents are opposed to, ”A Great Wall”. Most stated that we
already have a wall and the problem we have today has resulted in 6000
immigrant apprehensions in one week. Our Border Patrol agents are spending more
time at their stations attending to the immigrants with processing, medical
issues, transportation than they are patrolling the border. A Border Patrol agent
I spoke to told me they are “stretched to the limit and wasting valuable time
babysitting immigrants”. That agent also told me that when he was in Central
America, he saw billboards and signs all over the cities encouraging Central
Americans to go to the US. Who do you think put those billboards up? Most
probably the government and I wouldn’t doubt the cartels may have had a hand in
it.
RGV Border Patrol Sector, Today Apr 3, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd1I-IvcV0g
Ultimately, President Trump must first consider the
devastating effect a shutdown would have on US citizens living along the border
and the effect a shutdown would have on the US economy. I feel the president
will ultimately accept that fact and will not shut down the border. Our
immigration policy is antiquated and not designed to function in today’s world.
Any future immigration policy must include cooperation and compliance from every
country south of our border.
Any new policy must also include repercussion for employers who seek out to exploit immigrants for profit and tax evasion. It must also include stiff penalties for countries that encourage or enable emigration to the US and human rights violations such as El Salvador and Venezuela which they are currently engaging in. Honduras and Guatemala are not for behind.
From the border, hasta luego.
Oh wait.... Here's my personal rendition of Trump's new border wall.
eModicus.
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