Title 42 to Stay Intact
Governor Abbot Visits Eagle Pass, Along With Roughly 1,000 Illegal Aliens in just 6 Hours
Good Morning friends,
The big news this week can only be the fact that another court is ordering the federal government to keep Title-42, requiring Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security to continue enforcing Covid-19 related health restrictions on most people trying to enter into the United States.
Just what is Title 42 anyway? Well, critics call it a broken administrative tool— one that allows for “the mass expulsion of asylum seekers without due legal process from the US back to Mexico." One imagines that supporters call it a good start. Critics also say that it leaves asylum seekers stranded in highly insecure conditions and at the mercy of Mexican cartels and other less-organized criminal predators.
Here’s a pretty decent article from the El Paso Times that goes into some detail. One thing that caught us off guard in reading it, is the fact that Title 42 has been present since 1944. Somehow, in all of the recent coverage, we’ve been left with the impression that it was some new-fangled administrative tool solely related to Covid.
Here’s a piece by the Texas Tribune, going into some detail about the latest ruling and how it sets up another legal battle with elements of the federal government that are trying to eliminate Title 42. As always, we hasten to point out how the Tribune leans leftward politically, but makes effort to report objectively.
Some state analysts say there are more than 100,000 people hoping to cross the border between Laredo and Eagle Pass once Title 42 is finally gone. It’s expected that many will attempt to cross in the coming days, tired of waiting.
As you might have heard already, Governor Greg Abbott was in Eagle Pass yesterday, just South of Kinney County, ostensibly for a security briefing and to clap eyes on the current situation.
Sadly, there really wasn’t much substance to the visit, though he did promise to keep sending busloads of volunteer asylum seekers to Washington D.C.— a process which has amounted to mere theatre as well documented in both right and left leaning media.
You can see video coverage of most of his visit, here, from the NBC Affiliate station in Dallas/Fort Worth, but honestly friends, not sure why you’d really want to bother.
Neither the Texas Tribune, or the Epoch Times could be fussed to devote any webspace to the event at the time that we write this.
For comparison and fairness, here’s a link to the Governor’s own website, and the write up there— showing how they prefer to characterize the visit.
In effort to thwart cartel activity along the Texas-Mexico border, Governor Abbott noted that the State of Texas continues surging resources — including razor wire — to border communities to build stronger, more efficient barriers to deter illegal crossings between ports of entry.
—From the Governor’s Official News Release
The razor wire is real. They have it strung up in Eagle Pass, and on at least some of the surrounding ranches. At least one journalist we know of saw his questions go unanswered during the Q & A, repeatedly trying to ask the Governor if he and DPS are prepared for what’ll happen if and when an illegal alien gets tangled up in the stuff.
It’s a fair question— one can easily imagine the public relations nightmare that could result. If the stuff is effective at all, one could easily imagine the cartels paying or forcing a mom to get wrapped up in it, as a way of trying to force the state to remove it. Given how responsive state officials can be to bad press it seems more likely than not.
In the Governor’s defense, he is at least making some effort to raise awareness of the border crisis, during a time when the federal government seems more concerned about far-away events in Ukraine that have little-to-no-visible impact on anyone living in this hemisphere.
Let’s talk about how one could argue things might actually be crazier than ever. While the governor was in Eagle Pass— while the Federal Government looks about in every direction but South— Independent Journalist Ali Bradley reports that roughly 1,000 illegal aliens were caught out in the countryside outside Eagle Pass near Normandy in the space of 6 hours yesterday.
Eagle Pass to Normandy is about a 19 mile stretch of desert scrub— very remote. According to her source, that 1000 people in six hours, amounts to more than a third of all those captured in the area since last Friday.
Today is Tuesday. It’s election day. Get out there and do it. Force yourselves. The big statewide showdown is of course in the Attorney General’s race, where Ken Paxton is facing George P. Bush in a primary runoff.
Charlotte Cuthbertson at the Epoch Times does a pretty good job of covering the stakes of the race for out-of-state readers who may be sleeping on it, or unaware of its national significance.
In short, one could bill it as a cage match of a Trump representative figure, versus the last man still standing from the Bush political dynasty. One could also perhaps consider this race a referendum on the future of the Republican party in Texas and perhaps also the nation at large.
Another race with major national significance is of course the House District 28 primary with Democrat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar facing progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.
We’ve talked a lot about this race in the past, but for new readers: Cuellar is something of a South Texas institution— a river of pork barrel spending and federal support to a largely impoverished district anchored by his hometown in Laredo/Webb County.
Pork barrel spending is largely considered a negative by most taxpayers. But it’s the name of the game and always has been. If one lawmaker refuses to line up at the trough, the other swine will simply devour his share. It reminds us of an old survey that found most voters despise lawmakers in general— but their guy? He’s great.
In any event, Cuellar is also in line for what’s called “a cardinal,” chairmanship of a major congressional sub-committee— a position largely reliant on a lawmaker’s seniority.
Progressives want to dethrone Cuellar, troubled by his relatively orthodox catholic stance on abortion, as well as his willingness to reach compromises with Republicans. Progressive darlings like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been campaigning in support of Cisneros.
And on that note, we’ll call it a morning. It’s shaping up to be a busy week, but we thought it might be good to share some impressions from our recent travel to New Orleans for a family wedding.
Folks— it’s easy to forget how blessed one can be to live in a quiet, outdoor community like Kinney County.
Despite all of the current difficulties in Texas, one thing that leapt out at us from our stay in Louisiana is what felt like a very real fear of Covid-19 still dominating some aspects of life. In South Texas, most folks are pretty much over it. Going maskless, getting on with things.
Not so much in New Orleans.
It was surreal, waking up in the hotel with push notifications on our phone from the Louisiana Department of Health, trying to terrify us into downloading some kind of a tracking app that would supposedly alert us if we came into contact with anyone exposed to Covid.
What in the hell. Not today, Satan.
On the upside, things weren’t so crowded as you might expect for summertime in New Orleans, and the delicious food, cold drinks and the rest of the laid-back spirit one expects remain intact.
Have a great day and a better week— we’ll be back soon. As always any opinions, errors or other misdeeds contained within this newsletter are ours alone and not indicative of policies or beliefs held by the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office which employs us.