The Mex Files

Inconvenient truths, on the front page of yesterday’s ultra conservative Washington Times

“The fence is a way for the politicians in Washington to convince the American people that they’re doing something about illegal immigration,” [Maverick County Judge Jose A.] Aranda said. “But it’s simply an illusion.”

….
“They came in here from Washington like storm troopers, dictating what we were going to do and how we were going to do it,” said [Eagle Pass Mayor Chad] Foster in describing Homeland Security efforts to explain its fence project. “They steamrolled us. We tried telling them that in building a fence on this border, one size does not fit all.

“Instead, we found out they had no idea of what life is like on the border, and many couldn’t find the Rio Grande with a map,” he said.

Given some of the comments the Mex Files receives, and what I read in other venues when the Great Wall is dicsussed, I honesty don’t think a lot of people DO know where the border is. Or what it looks like. They think it’s a line across the desert (which it is, is California, not here). This is what it looks like just outside Del Rio, above — and this surprises people — Lake Amistad, a very large reservoir (and recreation area) that provides the water for most of the Rio Grande Valley…

That’s the mouth of the Pecos River… where exactly are the going to put the fence. On the bluffs on the U.S. side, cutting off access to the Union Pacific Railroad and U.S. 90? Or to the National Recreation Area?

How about on existing Federal property, like the Santa Elena Canyon?

Besides the obviously geographically challenged commentators, there are those who claim we should willingly give up our land for national security reasons. OK, but why do they say nothing about the rich, well connected landowners whose land is not being proposed for taking.

Along the border, preliminary plans for fencing seem to target landowners of modest means and cities and public institutions such as the University of Texas at Brownsville, which rely on the federal government to pay their bills.

A visit to the River Bend Resort in late January reveals row after row of RVs and trailers with license plates from chilly northern U.S. states and Canadian provinces. At the edge of a lush, green golf course, a Winter Texan from Canada enjoys the mild, South Texas winter and the landscaped ponds, where white egrets pause to contemplate golf carts whizzing past. The woman, who declines to give her name, recounts that illegal immigrants had crossed the golf course once while she was teeing off. They were promptly detained by Border Patrol agents, she says, adding that agents often park their SUVs at the edge of the golf course.

River Bend Resort is owned by John Allburg, who incorporated the business in 1983 as River Bend Resort, Inc. Allburg refused to comment for this article. A scan of the Federal Election Commission and Texas Ethics Commission databases did not find any political contributions linked to Allburg.

And, finally, there are those pathetic folks who try to appeal to our patriotism. I know my American history very well.. it wasn’t the Battle of the Alamo (which was lost by the Texas Independence fighters, but served as a rallying cry for the establishment of that short-lived republic) that was important to making Texas — and New Mexico and Arizona and California — part of the United States, it was the Battle of Fort Brown.

When Texas was annexed by the United States, the border was not well defined. According to Mexico it was the Rio Nueces, according to the United States, the Rio Grande/Bravo del Norte.

Fort Brown was built on the North shore of the Rio Grande to establish U.S. claims… and the remains of the fort still sit on grounds now owned by the University of Texas at Brownsville… or will, until the Wall effectively cedes them back to Mexico.

UTB President Dr. Juliet V. García and the UTB Trustees — in fighting this idiotic boondoggle — are the ones protecting national heritage and U.S. territory. What are the Wall-nuts doing?