Shutting Down Eagle Pass

Plus, Adolescent Smugglers, and There'll be no Running from the Roadrunner

Hello again friends,

Today’s a bit of a no-brainer. Anyone covering the border that isn’t talking about the shutdown of rail traffic at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry is probably a joke and not worth paying attention to.

We feel so strongly about it, we’re shaking off the dust to make sure we’re on record saying something about such a big deal.

Bound for Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Image by Reuters/Dan Becerril

This is going to cause some pain, economically.

It’s not as big of a deal as the freight that comes across in Laredo, but there’s a ton of money being made off of the goods coming through Eagle Pass.

Read somewhere it’s the second busiest land-port on the border. Don’t know if it’s 100-percent true— but everything from auto-parts to beer cans passes through there, and even a casual visitor can tell that Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras are open for business these days.

Well, were open for business.

They’re also shutting down rail traffic in El Paso.

Many conservatives have felt that economic pain would be necessary to force some kind of action on the part of the White House and Mexico to curb what’s happening, but somehow one doubts that this will be enough.

You know times are strange when Tony Gonzales is sounding like a border hawk.

Meanwhile, another San-Antonio-area political figure— Democrat Joaquin Castro, might as well be from Venus, or from 2002 instead of 2023, as he’s still suggesting that any kind of border security measures right now are just racist.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that we’ve linked to a clip cherry-picked by RNC Research. Fair enough. Here’s a link to his unedited statement, from his own twitter account. We happen to think the full 1:55 is even worse, with all of the tiresome racism kabuki. As one wag on twitter pointed out: “This border issue is getting so racist, they couldn’t find one black person to stand behind Castro?”

Maybe the confusion is just our fault. Maybe we haven’t gotten the memo yet that New York City Mayor Eric Adams (above) is one of the current faces of racism.

We need flashcards to keep track.

So, just what is on the table in Washington right now?

Well, here’s the Associated Press’s take on the negotiations in the Senate— and because they can’t help themselves, some bad words about former President Trump too.

Throughout the weekend, senators and top Biden officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have been working intently behind closed doors at the Capitol to strike a border deal, which Republicans in Congress are demanding in exchange for any help for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs. Mayorkas arrived for more talks late Sunday afternoon.

“Everyday we get closer, not farther away,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., as talks wrapped up in the evening.

Their holiday recess postponed, Murphy and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona independent, acknowledged the difficulty of drafting, and securing support, for deeply complicated legislation on an issue that has vexed Congress for years. Ahead of more talks Monday, it is becoming apparent any action is unlikely before year's end.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said senators don't want to be “jammed” by a last-minute compromise reached by negotiators.

“We’re not anywhere close to a deal,” Graham, whose staff has joined the talks, said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

Graham predicted the deliberations will go into next year. He was among 15 Republican senators who wrote to GOP leadership urging them to wait until the House returns Jan. 8 to discuss the issue.

—Reporters Lisa Mascaro and Stephen Groves, The Associated Press

The negotiations are secret, but we’re told that the White House has been suggesting the reinstatement of Title-42 like policies.

On the subject of Trump, by the way, these two serious reporters said he’s using Hitler-like language on the subject of immigration. Is he? Probably— if you’re using the nuDefinition of Hitler. The nuDefinition of Hitler basically applies to anything a low-imagination writer wants to say is Bad. So, there you go. Trump is Hitler, checkmate.

Getting back on track, if that’s all they’ve got— the “deal” is absolute garbage. Even with Title 42 in place, the border was absolutely overwhelmed. Is it worse now? Yes. Point being, the White House and DHS need to go a whole lot further.

Another article we saw over the weekend said something about a proposed “deal” that might see as many as 1-million “migrants” allowed into the US every year, along with another fat check for Ukraine.

If that’s progress, we are in some serious trouble.

There is no way DHS can handle 1-million “legal” migrants a year. That’s a fantasy.

The solution, we’re told, is to rush money and newly trained personnel to the border and beef up the operations so that they can handle it.

This is an absolute garbage solution— meant to take advantage of people who haven’t given it much thought. It is merely just another signal for all and sundry to keep on coming.

Build a bigger processing operation, you just get more people showing up to get processed.

The whole conversation is pointless, without including some real talk about reinstating some of the “draconian” procedures and measures that help ensure asylum seekers are actually legitimate, instead of the thinly veiled fakes that have been overwhelming the process these last 3 years.

We are under no illusions here— the policies and procedures we are advocating will be absolutely devastating for poor and humble people thinking to improve their lives by moving to the United States.

They include shipping people back to their countries of origin— full deportation— and not just kicking them back to Mexico, where they’ll simply turn around and try again.

We’d also like to see Border Agents authorized to deny people trying to cross illegally.

It will be devastating to a lot of poor unfortunates. But the alternative is worse. It includes the continued empowerment of Mexico’s criminal cartels, the continued importing of WMD amounts of fentanyl, the emboldening of international rivals like China, unrestrained child trafficking and adult sex trafficking, to say nothing of the vast numbers of migrants that are simply ending up homeless and helpless on the streets for lack of any real contacts or true prospects awaiting them in the US.

It’d be nice if we could actually and truly help these folks. But we’re not. We’re merely going through the motions while neglecting our own. Our own homeless, our own veterans, our own communities.

Enough already.

Let’s take a minute to talk about local events here in Kinney County, where Sheriff’s Deputies and DPS troopers continue to do their best to deny smugglers on the highways.

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy. Last Monday alone, Deputies were involved in 5 different pursuits before 12 Noon.

That’s insane.

Here’s some copy we sent to the local newspaper, summarizing the most notable— which included a driver blasting right up through main street (Ann Street) at a conservatively estimated 100 MPH.

In one case, involving a Chrysler 300, the driver was able to briefly escape, with speeds up over 130 miles-per-hour.

It all started on Highway 90, heading East toward Uvalde.  At some point the driver u-turned and boomeranged back to Brackettville, banged a right turn on Ann Street and went screaming North all the way up through the middle of town.  DPS and Deputies pursued and could be heard on the radio frantically trying to arrange coverage and spike strips ahead of the pursuit.

The driver was so reckless on RR 674, in the hills and twists and turns north of Alamo Village that he was able to dust pursuers.  Without air cover they were unable to maintain visual contact, and most pursuers turned back at the Edwards County line.  

Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement in Edwards County were able to pick up the thread, however-- and at last report, the driver and his passengers bailed out.

"He must've been up over 100 on Ann Street," said Chief Deputy Armando Garcia, reflecting on the driver's disregard for safety.  It should be noted, most vehicles involved in smuggling and human trafficking are not always in the best of shape.  That means drivers attempting to run risk blowouts, engine seizures and all kinds of other maintenance-related issues as they push their transportation to the wall, risking their lives, their passengers’ lives, and that of other motorists they encounter.

—A recent submission to the Kinney County Post, last week by yours truly

The 130 mph number comes from rough estimates of how fast certain vehicles involved in the pursuit can go, and the fact that they were being left behind.

We should also talk about a recent incident Thursday, that saw a pair of teenagers, 16 and 14, spend 18 hours cooling their heels in the lobby at the County Jail.

We’re told the pair— both girls— were arrested in the County driving a load of illegal aliens.

It is becoming more and more common for the cartels to recruit underage drivers. There are all kinds of “good” reasons for them to do it.

Number one— kids are dumb. Right? The cartels don’t seem to have to promise them as much money as they do adults.

Also— the Cartels know that law-enforcement struggles to deal with underage prisoners, and in many cases they escape real consequences.

As we saw last year and the year before— when border sheriff’s struggled to jail female suspects, the cartels increased their recruitment of women, up until the State established a lockup for female smugglers.

It seems there may need to be some consideration for a similar lockup for juveniles.

In this most recent case, the two suspects were actually not US citizens themselves. Both are in the States under DACA, or the Dreamer act.

Consequently, Border Patrol refused to take custody.

Regional Juvenile jails also refused to take custody.

The girls’ parents are apparently in the US illegally too— and were unwilling to come collect them— worried about being arrested themselves.

State Health and Human Services was also unwilling to take custody.

This leaves local law-enforcement in a quandary, obviously. In the end, the girls were kept in temporary custody until a friend of a friend could come and get them.

Sheriff Brad Coe says the pair did have one complaint against him and his deputies, that they made to Health and Human Services workers— they wanted to charge their phones.

“I’ll feed you, I’ll find a place you can rest, I’ll get you a blanket if you’re cold, but I ain’t going to charge your phones,” said the Sheriff— paraphrasing his response to the complaint.

It’s anyone’s guess if 18 hours of boredom will be sufficient penalty to keep these two alleged teenage smugglers and others like them from being repeat offenders.

And finally this morning— something that we saw on twitter/X recently that’s stuck with us: A promotional video for a new product by Palmer Luckey/Anduril— a defense contractor whose products have also seen some consideration for border use.

If the name rings a bell, it’s not the first time we’ve mentioned Luckey— who is perhaps best known for doing most of the work to create the “Oculus Rift” virtual reality equipment that was bought out by Facebook. Luckey was subsequently fired but has obviously landed on his feet.

The new product is called “Roadrunner,” and maybe we’re being too effusive, but it breaks down as some kind of next-generation drone system.

Here’s a link to the actual video of Roadrunner in action. Highly recommend watching it.

It’s really kind of scary. This is a technology that’s still in a relative infancy. Can barely imagine the future.

But as you watch the video— consider the implications. Among other things— the roadrunner system will allow one pilot, or controller, to shepherd a whole squadron of these things. And if they don’t wind up getting “burned” in an attack or an interception, they can return to their launch point and be reused again and again.

So, you’re looking at what amounts to a missile on steroids— only cheaper.

The missiles being used by US Navy warships in the Red Sea to intercept Houthi attacks with Iranian-built drones cost roughly 1-million dollars apiece. Expensive, but not as expensive as rebuilding a blown-up frigate or destroyer.

Palmer Luckey says right now his drones are in the low-couple-hundred-thousands apiece, and that the price per unit will drop as they scale up production.

We last took a look at Palmer Luckey and his company in a previous newsletter here, which included our best guess at why he might’ve named his company Anduril, after a magic sword from The Lord of the Rings.

Anyway— that should do it for now. Sun’s up. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back if circumstances warrant, but we don’t expect to resume publishing until after January 1.

As always, this humble newsletter should not be confused with any sort of official communication on behalf of Kinney County government. Though we are presently employed there as a public information officer, this newsletter predates that employment and is produced as separately as possible. We say all of this to remain in compliance with County policies regarding social media.