Source: Photo Credit: Rep. Tony Gonzales
Posted on 09/28/2021 3:43:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
Source: Photo Credit: Rep. Tony Gonzales
Take all of the imagery you have seen of the over 14,000 Haitian migrants camped under an international bridge in the small Texas border town of Del Rio and add the complications of disease, public excrement, unbearable heat and heightened frustrations. It has led to violence that has injured Border Patrol officers.
Now close your eyes and imagine it is 100 times worse.
Because that's what it is, said Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales, the freshman Republican who represents 42% of the border. The overwhelmed city of Del Rio had been in a rapidly deteriorating crisis situation when illegal immigrants first began surging into the community in January, but Gonzales now says the situation here is a "Category 5" and that the environment is unlike anything he has ever seen before.
"I arrived here today to pure chaos," he said. "I've never seen it in this environment. There literally is no border left."
Gonzales said Del Rio is in dire straits. "There's no doubt there's COVID here, there's measles, tuberculosis, all kinds of diseases," he said. "You've got kids running around in nothing but diapers. A handful of port-a-potties -- my God, the stench is terrible. This is not good for the migrants. It is not good for the residents. It's not good for wherever our government is sending them in the interior of the country."
Despite the Department of Homeland Security insisting repeatedly the Haitians would be deported, as of Tuesday, it had only removed 1,000 of the estimated 15,000 under the bridge. Multiple news organizations including CNN reported that buses have been escorting them to a nonprofit organization in town where they purchase bus or plane tickets. They are then moved to a gas station where buses pick them up and take them to other parts of the country.
The Washington Post reported that the number is in the thousands of those released to parts unknown in the interior of the country.
"My takeaway after I walked through it all, I look over at the sector chief, and I go, 'Man, I just feel sad.' He goes, 'I know. Everyone just feels beaten here,'" Gonzales said.
Del Rio residents have seen their lives turned upside down. The international bridge has been closed -- a lifeline bringing tens of millions of dollars to the local economy. If you're a small-business owner and your business has somehow survived COVID-19, something like this could easily wipe you out.
Everybody has been sucked into this chaos.
"The worst thing is that we are not even talking about the other places where this is happening," Gonzales said. "Today, we're talking about Del Rio, but tomorrow, it'll be Laredo or Brownsville or Eagle Pass or El Paso. This problem is not going away."
Gonzales said he asked the chief of Border Patrol, Raul Ortiz, at a Homeland Security Committee hearing about its surge of agents to Del Rio. "Those agents are coming from somewhere," he said. "And my worry is other sectors are going to be weakened, thus creating a national security crisis, putting us at risk in other sectors, because everyone is focusing on Del Rio."
Ortiz agreed. He also confirmed that reports were true that migrants had assaulted Border Patrol agents -- five of them, to be exact.
It is hard to imagine that this scene is playing out in America. It is also hard to imagine that our government has failed to secure the border or address this crisis with the seriousness it deserves.
Which is what makes the other part of this crisis political: Until a photo of a Border Patrol agent on horseback herding migrants back over the Rio Grande to Mexico was circulated on Twitter, Democrats, journalists and the White House had almost completely ignored or downplayed the 15,000 people who had been living in squalor under the bridge.
Blue-check Twitter cried foul, claiming that the agent's long reins were whips and absurdly likening the image to that of a white overseer whipping a slave. Suddenly, not only did press secretary Jen Psaki and the vice president notice, but they along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House press corps fabricated a story about Del Rio -- not about the appalling migrant crisis, but about how racist the Border Patrol is.
That story has been debunked, and to date, there are no reports that any migrant was ever "whipped" by agents.
It irks Gonzales that Border Patrol agents, who risk their lives and are coming under immense pressure right now, are having their actions and motives unfairly impugned. "They see their jobs as patriotic," the former Navy cryptologist said. "They know they are both protecting their community as well as their country."
The Biden administration and Washington Democrats' blind eye to this crisis have already had an impact politically. Hints of the future may have cropped up in last year's election, when majority-Hispanic areas rejected the Biden campaign's rhetoric that former President Donald Trump's handling of the border was racist.
Texans pummeled President Joe Biden in several border counties, with large numbers of Hispanic voters going for Trump. That shift away from Democrats may grow given the handling of the border. Already this summer, Republicans unexpectedly won two big mayoral elections in border towns that are overwhelmingly Hispanic and historically Democratic.
And it is not just South Texas Hispanics who are running away from Biden and by default from the Democrats. It is all Texas Hispanics. Last week, a Dallas Morning News/University of Texas-Tyler poll showed that Biden's approval rating with Hispanics in Texas is 19 points underwater, with only 35% approving of the job he is doing and a whopping 54% disapproving. There may be a realignment in the works.
In short, while white liberals in Washington think that using words like "Latinx" matters to the Hispanic community or connects them with its values, they are ignoring a crisis that deeply affects middle-class Hispanic families. They justifiably worry about their safety and their ability to pursue prosperity. The Democrats' oblivious lack of concern for their real-world concerns is already backfiring.
Maybe if one of them, any of them, spent a few days living in a border town, the party would understand just how dire and dangerous life there has become.
Just as Joe likes it
.
Isn’t Gonzales a Democrat? H
Texas should start loading them on one way busses to Delaware.
I should have checked. He’s a Republicant.
No it's not! Not when you look at the scumbag politicians we have in DC.
I feel for those people. I used to live in Del Rio. I am glad I moved out of it.
Gonzales a Republican but voted for impeachment. He’s also not running again because he will get trounced. He had promise.he blew it…. I hope he realizes a lot of this last 8 months of debacle is on him and the other impeachment turncoats!
And thanks to Demonicrats and RINOcrats, these horrors are also coming to your cities and towns.
Donald J Trump
Donald J Trump
@realdonaldtrump
14h
·
Just eight months ago, the whole world knew that if you illegally violated America’s borders, no matter where you came from, you’d be immediately caught, promptly detained, and swiftly removed—perfect precision clockwork. Our border was the envy of nations. Now, our border is the laughingstock of the globe. Anyone, from anywhere, can just illegally walk across our border, turn themselves in, and then be on to the city of their choice. No testing, no masking, no mandates. Free healthcare, deliveries, and medical services in our emergency rooms, all paid for by taxpayers. Drugs pour through like water. Our border agents are disrespected, denigrated, and demoralized.
Now, news reports indicate another 20,000 Haitians are staged in Columbia preparing to make the trek to our Southern Border. But that’s just the beginning. Wave after wave are heading our way, INVITED here to break our laws by Biden, Mayorkas, and the Marxist Democrats. Indeed, at this very moment, House Democrats are preparing to pass a Reconciliation Bill that includes total amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, and removes all limits on green cards and chain migration. Democrats are playing for keeps—Republicans better fight hard, fight strong, and stay united for America, or we won’t have a Country left.
This is not the Republican house member who voted for impeachment. The one you are referring to is from Ohio
So reminiscent of the Mariel boatlft of 1980. Castro cleverly cleared out his prisons and put his crminals on boats to Miami.
Of the approximately 135,000 who entered the US by boat, some 5% were Marielitos from the Cuban mafia.
Among them were sex and drug traffickers, murderers, and rapists.
They were into the usual racketeering, including gambling, prostitution, illegal gun trafficking, etc.
They became competition for established crime organizations, like the traditional Mafia, and the Mexican and Colombian cartels.
Now, thanks to Biden,it’s deja vu all over again!
I suspect that at least 5% of the border-jumping Haitians will be up to the same stuff.
Our poor border states, especially! As well as sanctuary cities in every state.
Yeah. I told my wife a few years ago that a million wetbacks would be rushing the border. I guess I was off a bit.
That Gonzales is from Ohio.
This is what both parties cheated Trump out to get.
It will get worse, another 17,000 are marching our way as I type.
Yes, it is frightening.
How do we stop it? Who has the power? Who has the will?
It still takes:
A Few Good Men.
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