Death and Texas

“Beyond politics, we cannot set aside respect for people’s lives and dignity,” Gov. Maru Campos, Chihuahua, Mexico

The U.S. is undergoing another great moral crisis much like the Civil Rights movement, and it is unfolding on the Texas border. A daily tragedy has transcended the law and has become about human rights, not just protecting the country from illegal immigration. Anyone paying even cursory attention to the controversy over razor wire and floating buoys, and children reportedly pushed back into the river, knows that people are dying in their attempt to overcome barriers and heat. They are hungry, desperate, thirsty, and hoping to change their lives by coming to America.

And they are political pawns for the Texas governor.

Greg Abbott’s inhumane obstacle course, state troopers and soldiers with guns, have made almost no impact on undocumented entries to Texas. And I don’t think he really cares. Only political optics are of concern to Abbott. If he were to completely stop immigration with his tactics, the governor would be disappointed. He’d be without a political axe to swing and get attention. Abbott’s goal has always been to show his extreme conservative base of voters that he is tough on immigration, and he has used billions of taxpayer dollars to advance his political ambitions.

He seems an unlikely presidential candidate, though. His anger is outstripped by Trump’s, who has a full menu of topics that make him angry, from indictments to equal rights for marginalized communities and people who are turning on him to avoid their own prosecutions. Abbott’s focus on poor people, meanwhile, is stunning in its depravity. As he burns through billions to cut babies and mothers on razor wire, he is unable to find the dollars in a $34 billion dollar state surplus to give teachers a raise, and his refusal to expand Medicaid is forcing an estimated 500,000 people off of health care rolls. Texas has more uninsured than any state, almost a half million are children.

Republicans in Congress, too, have made no attempt to solve the immigration problems. No one on the right even remotely suggests ideas and how they might be turned into law. Instead, they hold news conferences threatening to shut down the entire federal government’s funding if the Secretary of Homeland Security does not resign. They blame Alejandro Mayorkas for illegal immigration issues while ignoring that numbers of border crossers have dropped dramatically in recent months under President Biden’s policies.

A Potentially Deadly Struggle

Republicans don’t care and won’t acknowledge any change. The conservative caucuses see no problem with government shutdowns, regardless of the millions of lives that would be affected. They reflect an attitude that the government, they so desperately want to be a part of, is of no value. Rep. Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, suggested at a Freedom Caucus news conference in the middle of this past week, that Americans don’t really give a damn about what goes on in Washington.

“We should not fear a government shutdown. Most of what we do up here is bad anyway,” he said. “Most of the American people won’t even miss it if the government is shut down temporarily.”

This is the type of attitude that gets people killed. If radical members of congress stand in the way of funding the government they will be keeping money from Customs and Border Patrol, which will prevent them from protecting the Texas-Mexico frontier from illegal immigration, which is supposedly what conservatives want. Agents are already hampered by the obstacles put in place by Abbott’s extremist government. CBP officers are often unable to reach people in distress because razor wire is in place between them and immigrants in the river. The wire has to be cut before they can pass through to reach people to assist them and bring them into custody for processing.

Abbott’s buoys have prompted Mexico to send a diplomatic letter to Washington and the White House, expressing concern the floating barrier violates international treaties between the two countries. Mexico’s argument is humane and insists that laws can be enforced without putting lives in jeopardy. Their other complaints are related to treaties that require cooperation between the two countries when new infrastructure is added to the border and river. Implications of effects on the water course changing the border have not been addressed, nor have environmental impact or wildlife habitat. These are notions that will not have been pondered by the Texas governor.

The Department of Justice, though, has filed a civil lawsuit against the state of Texas for placing the buoys in the Rio Grande. DoJ is seeking a court injunction ordering Texas to remove the barriers because they violate federal law, endanger the public, navigation, and foreign relations with Mexico.

“We allege that Texas has flouted federal law by installing a barrier in the Rio Grande without obtaining the required federal authorization,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “This floating barrier poses threats to navigation and public safety and presents humanitarian concerns. Additionally, the presence of the floating barrier has prompted diplomatic protests by Mexico and risks damaging U.S. foreign policy.”

Everything Greg Abbott is doing on the border appears to be in violation of federal laws, and Washington is demanding it stop.

“The Rio Grande is a significant stretch of the southern border of our country,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza of the Western District of Texas. “We must all recognize that there are laws and policies in place – both domestic and international – to ensure the safety and security of everyone working, living and traveling along the river. These laws cannot be ignored, and my office will take and support the appropriate legal action to uphold them.”

Unspoken through Abbott’s and the DoJ’s announcements is an approaching potential constitutional crisis. There seems a strong legal basis for a federal court judge to find Texas is in violation of the law and international treaties. What happens when the state is ordered to remove the buoys and the razor wire impeding federal agents from doing their jobs as border patrol? Abbott will likely refuse and DoJ has no real enforcement authority. It cannot send officers to the border to remove the obstacles. The most likely outcome is the Western District of Texas court charges fines that accumulate daily, which will also be ignored by Texas.

There is no way to see how this standoff will be resolved. Abbott will remain intransigent. The White House’s options are limited. President Biden is unlikely to order federal troops to remove barricades installed by Texas and protected by its National Guard. The video would be a political poison pill. Even though the president’s budget is adding billions to CBP with new officers and technology and administration, videos of the Texas obstacles being hauled away would turn into political TV ads that proved he was weak on illegal immigration and protecting the border. Abbott, it is safe to assume, will not be moved. While he vilifies immigrants as law breakers, he will puff out his chest, put on his khaki shirt with his governor’s logo on the chest, and defy the law when ordered by a court.

In the interim, more immigrants will die to make Greg Abbott’s political points. Many of them probably have legal claims to asylum but are not allowed up on the north bank of the river. Others are without any hope other than to take chances to reach America, and they will die trying. There have been no great voices rising to protect the human rights of the unnamed crossing open deserts in deadly heat to meet guns and razor wire and soldiers who have been ordered to push them and their children back into the Rio Grande. Maybe an international tribunal will someday put Greg Abbott on trial for crimes against humanity.

Even better, perhaps voters will send him into history’s dustbin.