GUNNING FOR MIGRANTS: ...Greg Abbott's Wet Midnight Dreams...Border Standoff...No Solution In Sight...Mexico Not Taking Calls...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...Greg Abbott can't seem to solve the problem. It is a 1+1=2 elementary toughie, but he's doing his damndest to make it more than it is. Stopping the alleged migrant surge at the southern border, we mean. Get off the bike and on the stick, we say.

Enough is enough.

Abbott, the sitting Republican governor of Texas, wants a fight with the federal government that feeds him and his state's constituents, like to the tune of 15 active military bases operated by the Feds and a resulting $100 million impact from that alone. We're not even going to mention the $200 million Texas got from the federal government to fight Covid-19, but which was used by Abbott in his Operation Lone Star border mess.

The border is still not secured, at least not to the liking of American Rednecks and some congressional members of the Republican Party. How hard can this be? Put some educated brains on it already, and come up with a working solution, - even if it's one that takes several years to accomplish.

Do something!

As things stand, the Mexican Border may as well be the Gaza Strip. Our news cycle includes it daily, its ever-beating heart exposed to the entire country on both left-wing and right-wing news outlets. Abbott has been munching on this issue since Democrat Joe Biden won the presidency over Abbott-favorite Donald J. Trump.

We ask: Would Abbott be doing what he's doing if he had Trump back in the White House saddle?

Of course not, although the wet dream Republicans have about this is that Trump would not have a single migrant at the border. Good soundbite, but, in our real world, just a panacea. Our southern border always has been a magnet for the God-abandoned and dispossessed. That's a lingering fact, one Republicans choose to ignore.

The U.S. is an immigrant country - immigrants will always seek America. That's why we clarion the red, white and blue standard that this is the nation of freedom, a place on Earth where even the weakest can rise and become somebody. Lately, Abbott has bused thousands of migrants to other cities in the country, namely those run by Democrats, and a few to the home of Vice-President Kamala Harris.

In that junior high solution, one that does not aid the country, Abbott has spent a few more million.

You wonder why, yes.

El Paso resident Reynaldo Alvara has some news for Abbott. He wrote in a letter-to-the-editor of his hometown newspaper (one re-published in a few others, like the Dallas Morning News):

". . . I live in El Paso, and illegal immigration is not an issue here. El Paso’s port of entry has processed millions of asylum seekers. I can tell you firsthand that almost all, once paroled, leave the state. The first thing they tell you is that they would rather not stay in a state with a $7.25 minimum wage when others start at $15 an hour. Texas has thousands of homeless people, but asylum-seekers like to work and live in a home, not on the streets."

Geez, had Abbott merely let them amble in and keep walking, well, they'd be no problem for Texas. Most of them would likely have ended in Democrat-controlled states anyway!

But this is a political issue now, and this being a presidential election year, well, the muddied mess is going to be stirred. Abbott has the big, wooden spoon and he's stirring.

Donald Trump doesn't have the answer, either. His style is to talk tough and then forget about it. Mexico was going to pay for his "big, beautiful wall."

There are nine months before the General Election in November.

Nothing will be done to solve the so-called Border Crisis, nothing. Migrants will be photographed by the news media, state and federal agents will be on-station and Texas Gov. Abbott will keep throwing wrenches into the national wheel's spokes.

He could huddle with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, but the word is that Mexico can't stand Abbott and won't take his telephone calls. That, we would guess, is likely okay with sheltered Abbott. 

It's all a game for him. It's all a game we all see clearly...

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