“The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people”
“The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden Administration would charge us with murder,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Dana Loesch last week. But Texas will let them drown. We’ll come back to that.
“The cruelty is the point,” Texas resident Adam Serwer famously wrote. Cruelty is also the policy. Don’t say you weren’t warned or missed the signals. There is already ash settling on your windowsills.
First, this reminder: “The leading GOP presidential contender is using an admitted hit man and lifelong criminal as a character reference. Take a second to reflect on that.” — Luis Moreno, former U.S. Ambassador, retired Foreign Service Officer.
In case you missed it on Saturday, Donald Trump jumped the loan shark.
Trump is not flying solo either (CBS):
A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.
Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants.
Take a second to reflect on that.
America’s shame will not be on display on front pages across the world. The world will not view with horror these migrants’ sodden bodies as they did when three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s body washed up face down on a Turkish beach in 2015. Kurdi drowned along with his mother and brother as they tried to flee Islamic fundamentalists in Syria.
Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar issued a statement Saturday (above) about the migrants who drowned.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Cuellar’s description of the events was accurate. In a statement Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Texas officials obstructed Border Patrol’s attempts to rescue the migrants on Friday.
“Tragically, a woman and two children drowned last night in the Shelby Park area of Eagle Pass, which was commandeered by the State of Texas earlier this week,” the department said. “In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.”
White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said Texas soldiers “blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” to the migrants.
“While we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear: Governor Abbott’s political stunts are cruel, inhumane, and dangerous,” Fernández Hernández added.
Texas Public radio adds:
Earlier Friday, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene to allow the Border Patrol to regain access to the 47-acre Shelby Park, stating that Texas is using armed Texas National Guard soldiers to stop the Border Patrol from accessing two-and-a-half miles of border.
“We remain gravely concerned by actions that prevent the U.S. Border Patrol from performing their essential missions of arresting individuals who enter the United States unlawfully and providing humanitarian response to individuals in need,” a CBP spokesperson said.
Actor Ronald Reagan made great show of warning America in 1964 that the upcoming election was a time for choosing. The newish Republican defined freedom largely in terms of economics, of course, and peace in terms of government leaving them alone. He shared anecdotes reminiscent of Trump’s “many people say” stories and facts not to be accepted without fact-checking.
But Reagan the cold warrior praised America as a haven for refugees from communism, “the last best hope of man on earth.” Refugees from Castro’s Cuba were fortunate then to have a place to escape to, as Reagan told it.
Reagan “borrowed” without citation FDR’s “rendezvous with destiny” line and warned of “a thousand years of darkness” if Americans chose poorly. He was just 60 years early.