Every time I hear someone go on about "border security" I'm going to post this video of me pushing open a "gate" cut by cartels in the border fence; a fence that cost billions of dollars and is easily defeated by cheap cordless cutting tools.
There are two ways to have a secure border: place groups of soldiers in fortified bunkers every 100' along the entire length of the fence 24/7 (no, don't do this), or by helping to stabilize the economic and security situations in the countries people are arriving from while also having a humane and easy to navigate immigration policy.
Many of the people coming here in hopes of asylum are arriving from countries with a history of U.S. support for dictators (e.g. Honduras, Nicaragua) or as direct or indirect climate refugees. Given that the U.S. is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter (and, I believe, the largest per capita), we legitimately owe these people safe harbor.
A century & a half ago, Confederate Gen Joseph Orville Shelby splashed into the wild waters of the Rio Grande off this border city & fled to Mexico, refusing to surrender to Union soldiers.
Now the park named in his honor (?) has become a front line in a feud between the #state & the #federal govt — a power struggle over who ultimately has the right to control the border….
For the first time under President Joe #Biden, officials are using authority established under former President Donald #Trump to waive dozens of laws in order to continue construction on the racist southern #border wall.
In a troubling email sent by a Department of Public Safety trooper, new details have emerged regarding Gov. Greg Abbott's border security initiative in Texas. According to the trooper, officers have been specifically instructed to forcibly push small children and nursing infants back into the Rio Grande, a river separating Mexico and the US. They have been directed to withhold water from asylum seekers, even in extreme heat conditions.
The trooper's email, dated July 3, sheds light on previously unreported incidents witnessed in Eagle Pass, where Texas has implemented various measures such as stringing miles of razor wire and deploying buoy walls in the Rio Grande. These actions were undertaken as part of the state's efforts to fortify the #border and deter crossings.
The email highlights distressing incidents witnessed by the trooper. In one instance, a pregnant woman was found caught in the razor wire, experiencing excruciating pain as she suffered a miscarriage.
I spent time along the U.S.-Mexico border last week, watching changes as #Title42 ended.
There is a lot to say about what I observed on Friday and Saturday and I intend to write a short blog post. For now, a few photos.
For reasons unknown, migrants coming through the border fence (through a single cut bollard a few miles west of the Lukeville crossing) were tearing up or even burning their documents. I found ID cards from India, a half-burned passport from Mauritania, a Mexican travel visa, vaccination cards, a bus ticket from Oaxaca to Tecate, and this fragment of a document of someone from Brazil.
I don't know why they tear them, but this one in particular caught me attention. I don't know what will happen to Brazilians who entered the country without proper documents. Or Mauritanians or Indians or all the others. But I wish them good luck.
Thank you to everyone who called #Congress in support of #Ukraine. You made a difference! Thank you.
Americans, we must ensure the senate moves quickly to approve/finalize.
It’s crucial to understand that the Republicans had the opportunity to pass the bipartisan national security bill, already approved in the Senate. However, they were UNWILLING to do so for six months. They unnecessarily introduced multiple bills, causing further delays in the aid to Ukraine. This must go through the Senate, even though the Senate had already approved a bill that included national security. The Republicans removed the #border security from the bill. Removing billions #potus had for CBP and CBP wanted this badly! Keep this manipulation in mind.
Remember this fuckery.
It is crystal clear that the treason caucus republicans are covered in #Ukrainian blood. MoscowMike Johnson has been stalling Ukraine aid for months, each time giving a different excuse. Traitorous republicans are marked. We will not forget.
Top story: The governor wants to build a wall along up to 800 miles of #Texas’ border with #Mexico, which, at this rate, could rack up a tab of around $20 billion and take decades to complete.
A thread of commentary today on the ugly games Congressional Republicans are playing as Trump pulls their strings and they block aid to Ukraine and torpedo the border bill they claim desperately to want. Heather Cox Richardson quotes Senator Brian Schatz,
“I’ve never seen anything like it. They literally demanded specific policy, got it, and then killed it.”
Trump wants our economy to fail and the border to be in chaos, all for his own political gain. The GOP is willing to assist him, at the cost of our national security.
The Republican Party has shown you their hand time and time again. Stop shaking it. #Border#Immigration#GOP#GOPTraitors#VoteBlueForBorders#LincolnProject
#POTUS#Biden said Fri he would use new emergency authorities to “shut down the #border when it becomes overwhelmed” if #Congress passes a bipartisan #immigration plan the #Senate has been negotiating.
The comments signified a remarkable shift in tone for a Democratic president & underscored the urgency of the issue for his reelection campaign as immigration remains one of his most vexing #political & #policy challenges.
”Organized crime has now extended its tentacles throughout #Mexico. Going down the list of the 32 states, at least half of them are wracked by #crime and violence at the highest levels we have seen in a century.”
Yesterday morning I lucked onto a Border Patrol repair crew welding up cuts in the border fence. This crew does 5-10 quick fixes/day, then a contractor comes back and does more "permanent" fixes. If a fix is too good, the human traffickers who cut the fence will just cut the bollard next to it.
(But reality check: #MikeJohnson said he doesn’t want to pass #BorderLegislation because he doesn’t want the Biden admin to be able to take credit for it & because he wants to keep the issue alive for the 2024 #election.)
Remember the immigrants bused into New York and other liberal cities? In recent months, Democrats have started to sound more like Republicans when discussing the "migrant crisis."
#POTUS#Biden is planning to make a visit to the southern #border on Thurs, acc/to 2 people briefed on the plans, traveling to Brownsville, #Texas, on the same day that #Trump has scheduled a border trip.
#GOP says no need for new #immigration laws. That’s not what it used to say.
#Republicans are sandwiched between what many of their #Senate GOP colleagues say is a critical opportunity to pass #conservative#border#legislation & the #political wishes of a former president who seems to view the crisis as a boon to his 2024 campaign.
& increasingly, they’ve landed on a talking point: We don’t really even need new #laws.
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is on the verge of pulling the plug on any hopes for a bipartisan deal that includes funding for border security and aid to Ukraine. The culprit? Donald Trump, who has been urging Republicans to reject any deal...
'Horrific Step Backwards': #Biden Admin Waives Protections to Speed Border Wall Construction
"Every acre of habitat left in the Rio Grande Valley is irreplaceable," said one advocate. "We can't afford to lose more of it to a useless, medieval wall."
Environmental protection advocates and immigrant rights campaigners expressed horror over a plan that will waive more than two dozen laws in order to expedite the construction of the U.S.-Mexico #border#wall.
The #SupremeCourt on Tues cleared the way for Texas to immediately begin enforcing one of the nation’s harshest immigration laws, which opponents say would disrupt more than a century of #federal control over #international borders.
The decision established that minors at open-air sites were in #legal custody of the DHS & thus must receive #safe#shelter, even if they had not yet been formally processed.
The combustible mix of #RightWing anger coming together in #Texas
…
“In recent weeks, #GregAbbott’s efforts have grown much more contentious, w/ Texas #law enforcement seizing control of a park along the river in #EaglePass that is used by the #federal#Border Patrol. Texas ofcls are now blocking access to the park by federal law enforcement, a move that has earned the endorsement of dozens of #Republican governors in other states.