Showing posts with label Texas border. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas border. Show all posts

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Border Lines

Here in Texas the southern border is always important to us. But maybe more than usual lately, since the Supreme Court said, “Sure, if your way of securing the border is to cut through and remove barriers, you can do that,” and sort of failed to point out, “If you’re actually securing the border, that is.” Anyway, here we are in the state with the biggest border—and big in every way—and our president is kind of threatening war against us citizens of Texas.


meme found on Facebook

There’s a demonstration of sorts going on this week. Truckers are gathering. I think as of Thursday they're already in Texas and will be splitting up into three convoys, one going down to Eagle Pass, the furthest going to San Ysidro, on the border in California, and a third to Yuma, Arizona.

Glenn Beck talked with Donica Hudson, the media liaison for the Take Our Border Back Convoy on his Wednesday radio show. After the setup that was J6, people are wary of a trap. But she assured him they’re being careful. This is a call for prayer down near the border. And they’re stopping 20 miles or so from the actual border, so they can’t even accidentally get in the way of the work of border agents and national guard troops. They are threatening to sue for defamation anyone who accuses them of violence or criminal intent. And they are making sure everyone understands the peaceful purpose and excludes anyone even talking about violent actions.


Jason Buttrill shared footage of the convoy from Tuesday night.
It seemed to be mostly family vehicles, rather than tractor trailers
at that point. People were cheering with flags from the roadside.
Screenshot from here.

Will that be enough to protect them? I hope so. We should see within a few days whether it’s possible for patriots to still do a peaceful demonstration in this country.

But there’s reason for concern.

On Monday’s weekly Onward podcast, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, of 2000 Mules fame, were talking about their recent visit to the border. Engelbrecht is a native Texan (she started True the Vote here in Houston, but lives somewhere rural now). So after all that was going on, they decided to go see for themselves what the border looked like. They started the story with this:

Gregg Phillips: We met people that were down there that are deeply involved in the protection of the border. And, uh— But they were also very candid. And, um, there was this definite feeling that there was a deal that had been made—

Catherine Engelbrecht: We were told, unequivocally, we were told that was the term that was used: “There has been a deal made.”

Phillips went on to call it a “military deception. It was an intel op.” He said they created a stage, or circumstances, to look a certain way when they brought in celebrities, which included Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in this case. (Catherine laughed at the idea she was considered a celebrity.) What they didn’t see on this visit was a lot of border crossing traffic, and it made them wonder what was going on. As you might expect, this was not normal.

He said that, later, they learned a lot of things. First he talked about the wall. There are pieces of it, 20 feet high, that didn’t fully keep out determined invaders. Those were built around 2008, when George W. Bush felt pressure to do a little something about the border before the end of his presidency. The top was such that it didn’t deter climbing, so those are no longer made. Trump walls were 30 feet tall, with barriers atop them, and fewer gates (gates are used by landowners to get from one side of their land to the other, when the wall is built a mile or so inland from the border or river). But the interesting part was about the “deal.” Here’s Gregg Phillips’ telling of the story:


Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht talk about their
trip to the Texas border. Screenshot from here.

GP: What happened was, a deal had been made between the Biden administration, potentially the state of Texas, and the Mexican government to keep the migrants back for a while, to create this photo op, to tamp down the situation where— It was military deception, is what it was. And they’re not supposed to do that in the United States, but they were.

He said that the soldiers and border patrol were already working together; there isn’t a big standoff happening. And, during this visit, there wasn’t even the usual daily expected crossings.

GP: Well, guess what. There were 15,000 of them at the southern border of Mexico that were released last Saturday, to come north. So, what they’re setting up there, in our opinion—in my opinion; maybe Catherine will want to speak for herself—what I believe they’re setting up here is, this truckers’ convoy that arrives at the border sometime this weekend, and I think there’s some movement in the other states as well, but let’s just talk about Texas for a minute. Many many many trucks, and many many people and patriots are going to go to the border, a little bit like we did, just to see— You know, stand up for, not just Texas, but for the United States.

So, think about what’s happening here. While all these photo ops are going on, there’s nothing. So, the Biden administration kind of gets a win with that. Maybe even the Tex— I don’t know who wins, but this was basically a fake win-win scenario. The fact that no one was there, coming through that open gate, or swimming through the river, or anywhere else that we could find. The reason was, the Mexican government held 15,000 of them up at the southern border.

Now they’re coming this way. So you can imagine how we feel, at the confluence of events, knowing that many of our friends, people we know, people we admire, people we support, are getting ready to pack up, get in their trucks, and head on down to the border. And, with this idea that, well, it’s softening a little bit; everything’s OK. They’re going to get down there and all of a sudden 15,000.

Not just 15,000 suddenly showing up, but 10,000 Chinese. Reporter Michael Yon is their source on this:

Up to 10,000 Chinese came through the Darien Gap in Panama in the ten days prior to us getting down there. So, from last Friday [January 26], the ten days prior, 10,000 fighting-age Chinese came through the Darien Gap, and up through Columbia, up through Panama, up through the Gap—it’s a jungle area, one of the most dangerous places in the world.


Chinese emerging from the Darien Gap, December 30, 2023,
footage filmed by Michael Yon, screenshot from here

Michael Yon, Catherine adds, has been “putting up maps of what he’s seen, and explaining the movement in Panama, which will give more context to what Gregg is saying.” They’re building camps to house them in before they come across. Phillips goes on:

GP: You’ve got 10,000 potential Chinese. You’ve got a total of 15,000 people that were released at the southern Mexico border to come north, toward the United States. They’re all going to collide at the same time in some of these points of entry, particularly Eagle Pass. And both north and south of there. And it just feels like, it feels like chaos at this juncture, and that they’re trying to sow chaos. And our concern for all of our friends heading down there is, it feels a little J6-ish to us. It feels like, you know, Biden needed a win; Abbott needed a win; the Mexican government needed a win; and the Chinese need to get their people up here. It just seems like a bit of a perfect storm.

They’re concerned for national guard troops, for the border patrol agents—both sides in the supposed conflict, but regardless of orders are both about protecting the border.

Gregg Phillips takes what seems like a tangent to talk about Secretary of DHS Mayorkas, which is actually related.

GP:  Mayorkas, before he—we’re going to pass more information on this—but before he became Secretary of DHS, he was on the board of an NGO. That NGO has an office building at the Darien Gap, literally 50 yards from what’s called euphemistically “China Camp,” where all the Chinese are coming up through the Gap and being facilitated by this NGO. Mayorkas has been seen down there on drone footage, arriving at the camp, going to the NGO, and then back again.

Just speculation here, but it looks as though the US head of the Department of Homeland Security is facilitating the movement of fighting-age male Chinese to come to the US border and enter our country. That’s what it looks like. Phillips calls him “a complete bad guy” and deserving of impeachment, if anyone ever was. He also believes Mayorkas is the one who “concocted this whole scheme to get the win for Biden, the win for Abbott, the win for Mexico, and create this environment where there’s going to be a potential conflict at Eagle Pass sometime next week, or later this week, when all the truckers and all the patriot types get down there.”

People have been asking Gregg and Catherine what patriots can do, so they asked their contact down at the border. His answer was one they agree with:

GP: The only thing that’s going to stop this— It’s not going to be razor wire on top of unused containers—although that’s pretty— I’ve walked around that for a bit; that’s pretty effective. But the only thing that’s going to stop this is some president—President Trump—actually deporting these people. As soon as they start deporting the people that are somehow making their way across, sending them back wherever they came from, back to China, back to Nicaragua, back to wherever they’re going—Venezuela, Cuba, wherever they’re coming from—only deportation is going to stop this. Mark my words. Nothing else will stop this.

They want a war. They want an internal war over this. But even that isn’t going to stop what’s happening. The only thing that’s going to stop it is putting these people back on a plane, and instead of flying them to Chicago, fly them to Caracas.

You have to wonder why a thinking person would want invaders to flood in across our borders, and would hope something might spark a kinetic war. But, then, we don’t have a thinking person in the White House. We have a power monger there, surrounded by power mongering minions.

Anyone going to the border, be careful. Be on the lookout for traps. Be nonviolent. Putting pressure on government bad guys could be a good thing. It brought needed attention in Canada and The Netherlands. But neither of those places ended well for the truckers or farmers, because of the tyrants in power. We live in what is supposed to be a constitutional republic, with the rule of law. But we have tyrant leaders right now as well. So, if you’re bravely joining others to make your voice heard, again, just be aware and be safe. We want to see you safely back home afterward.

On a side note, the Harris County sample ballot is finally available. There are 13 propositions at the end of the Republican ballot. Numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 12 all relate to illegal immigration and border security. The people of Texas are trying to get this message across—peacefully.

Additional Resource:

·        How China and the UN are Fueling the Invasion of America” Tucker Carlson interviews Bret Weinstein, February 1, 2024. 

Friday, January 26, 2024

The Letter Read Round the World

You have probably heard about the friendly letter Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent to Biden earlier this week. It’s worth a read, so I include it here. 


Governor Greg Abbott's letter, found here

I’m in Texas, so I might be more aware of things going on in Texas than people elsewhere. But this one is important beyond our great state.

Texas has the longest boundary with a foreign nation, Mexico, which is generally on friendly terms with the US, since that separation by Texas in 1835—as a result of Mexico’s tyrannical leader who stomped on their guaranteed constitutional rights (yes, Mexico had a constitution, which their president ignored, a pattern we may see being repeated here). And then the US won the Mexican-American War 1846-1848. Since then the two nations have been at peace. Mexico has not been generally as prosperous as the US. As a result, their people have often come to the US to find work. Migrant farm workers are among these. They can be hardworking, honest people—when they come here legally. And there are plenty of legal immigrants with education and skills as well, whom we welcome.

The problem has been with people who come in illegally. There is a substantial difference between legal and illegal. Law-abiding Americans welcome a manageable number of legal immigrants and legal resident aliens. While we may agree that the process for legal immigrants could be improved and streamlined, the problem at our southern border is mostly unrelated to that process.

 

Just Dealing with the Invasion

What we have is an invasion. It includes enemies of the state from around the world. It includes drug traffickers—including the deadly fentanyl. It includes human traffickers—slave traders of enforced labor slavery and also child sex slavery. The Biden administration, nor the Obama administration of the past, will explain why they want to allow these enemies in.

Here in Texas, we have been calling this an invasion for a good long while. And we’ve been complaining about our governor taking so long to make that declaration. We’re glad he’s done it. And we add, “What took you so long?”


Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick speak with Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024
screenshot from here

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick talked with Glenn Beck in an interview Wednesday, and he backed up the governor. He said that a lot of things had been going on behind the scenes. The governor’s administration wasn’t inactive.

One of the things behind the scenes was legislation that became law in December, after the latest special legislative session (I think there were four special sessions after the regular biennial session that closed in May, but I lost count; Lt. Gov. Patrick just called it the umpteenth special session).

At our Cypress Texas Tea Party meeting on Wednesday, we heard from State Rep. Tom Oliverson, giving a report on legislation passed this year. He highlighted three bills, and shared interesting stories. Then, even after the Q&A, he added one more thing, which happens to be the bill Lt. Governor Patrick referred to. So this is Rep. Oliverson:

One more little factoid for you, because this was late breaking news. So, you know, the border bill that we just passed—I heard some of you talking about the border and all this kind of stuff. So, what the law says now, under state law, is that, if DPS catches you crossing you over the border not at a port of entry, you may be arrested on the spot, charged with a class B misdemeanor, which means you can and will go to jail.

However, the judge has the ability to basically waive those charges and essentially, I guess, whatever that process is… I don’t know. But you basically give them a pass and say, “We’re going to wipe these charges out, but only if you agree to go back to Mexico today.” So that’s how the law is now.

Now, obviously, the legal process is going to play out here. But, just so you know, if you hear on TV, well, DPS [Department of Public Safety] is arresting people, that’s because the law we just passed a couple of months ago says that they can be arrested. And the other thing is, if they do it more than once, they can be charged with a felony, and then they can spend a lot of years in jail….

So they would get arrested; they would be charged; they would have a court date, a trial; they would be held. And then they’ll serve their time in jail, and then we’ll turn them over to customs. So the disincentive for somebody who’s crossing into our state illegally is, “If I get caught by DPS, at a bare minimum, I’m going to spend six months in jail before I even see a customs and patrol agent. And if I’ve done it more than once, I may go away for years.” After which time we’ll turn them over to customs. So that’s how that works.

Texas has to act. We have millions of illegal aliens flowing into our state. Some of them get bussed or flown to elsewhere in the country—that’s done by the US government; Texas only did that with a few busloads to get media attention. The government is doing it quietly every day, and dumping them in troubled US cities, even up north, all those “sanctuary cities”—Chicago, New York, etc.—which are now complaining that they’re not equipped to handle all these people.

Still, the feds are leaving far more than can be handled in small border towns without resources to deal with such an influx. Meanwhile the US government is insisting they get free housing, free transportation, free healthcare, free public education—at taxpayer expense. (Meanwhile, legal immigrants go through years of red tape and paperwork and court costs; you’d think they were trying to discourage legal immigration and encourage illegal immigration.)

This is purposeful. I can’t say definitively what the purpose is, but it’s intentional.

 

Razor wire along the Texas/Mexico border,
screenshot from here

The Vacated Injunction

The lead-up to Governor Abbott’s letter was the Supreme Court 5-4 ruling that vacated (removed) the injunction against the federal government to keep them from interfering with Texas border patrol agents.


SCOTUS ruling that the injunction is vacated.

Let’s get a little clarity on that. The Texas national guard has been putting up razor wire, concertina wire, to prevent access on the US side of the Rio Grande. This will force invaders to go to ports of entry. At ports of entry, the US government is still just letting them in and sending them out into the country, but at least there’s a process happening there. At other places, there’s no tracking. And there’s also the risk of death for the invaders. A number of them have drowned in the river, which would have been totally avoided by going to a port of entry.

The Biden administration’s border agents had been going in and cutting the razor wire—to give access to invaders. Texas filed an injunction to stop them, which was granted by Justice Alito on December 19, 2023. The federal government appealed, asking that the injunction be removed.

It’s obvious that removing barriers to allow access is not securing the border, which the US government is required by law to do—one of the few enumerated powers granted to the federal government, and they go out of their way to not do it, and to thwart anyone who tries to do it on their own.

The SCOTUS ruling, which is pretty wrongheaded, only removed the injunction. In other words, it said the administration could carry out its policies at the border as it sees fit. Let me reword that: the federal government is allowed to determine its methods for securing the border and protecting American sovereignty. However, removing barriers and encouraging invasion cannot be construed as securing the border. Texas has a right to secure borders. So, in essence, the ruling allows the federal border agents to do their actual job; it does not stop Texas from doing that job when they fail to.

The SCOTUS ruling did not say that Texas had to allow the federal border agents to come in and remove borders that Texas had set up. There is not, to date, an injunction against any actions by Texas. There are complaints from the feds that Texas ought to let them go in and remove the barriers, without any hindrance.

But why should we?

When the states grant powers to the US government, they have to have those powers in order to grant them. They do not lose the right to self-protection by “hiring” the federal government to carry out that duty.

That is what Governor Abbott has spelled out so nicely in his letter.


25 states stand with Texas in its right to self-protection,
image found here

This is the kind of standoff that the brink of war might look like. I don’t want war to happen. I can’t even envision that happening. As of today we have a majority of states, 25, standing with Texas (all the states with Republican governors except Vermont). Really, how could a commander-in-chief rally troops to kill their fellow citizens—so that the federal government could tear down our borders and invite invaders in? How can they spin that? I’m sure they could find a mendacious way to spin it, but I don’t think it will fly—any more than using SWAT teams to arrest “dangerous domestic terrorists” who are actually peaceful, country-loving grandmas. Good people know that is just wrong.

President Trump suggested that the supporting governors should send some of their own state National Guard troops to Texas to add support. That’s probably a good idea. It has been done before, at times when there were particular crisis points; I think at least Oklahoma and Florida had done so.


President Trump suggests supporting states send guard troops to Texas,
screenshot from here

National Guard troops are under the command of their various state governors—unless and until the President calls them into action. Anti-American, anti-Texan, Democrat “heroes” Joaquin Castro and Beto O’Rourke are of course calling for the President to federalize the Texas National Guard. The claim is that Governor Abbott is using the Texas National Guard to defy a Supreme Court ruling. But, as we went through above, Texas has no requirement to defy. The ruling only said the feds could be allowed to do their job. Governor Abbott correctly identifies the feds as not doing their job, and so Texas will do it.

Until there is a Supreme Court ruling saying Texas cannot put up razor wire on its border or otherwise act to protect its border, Texas can and will continue its self-protection. No such ruling is imminent. And if it were to come, Texas—and those other supporting states—would be within their constitutional rights to defy that order and protect themselves anyway. I think Governor Abbott explained that pretty clearly, citing the portions of the US Constitution at issue.

Texas has the “Come and take it” flag, from the Battle of Gonzales, daring the enemy Santa Anna to retrieve a cannon they’d borrowed four years earlier. 


A replica of the infamous "Come and Take It" flag
from the Battle of Gonzales hangs in the state capitol in Austin, Texas,
image from the Houston Chronicle.

There is less conflict between federal border patrol and Texas DPS and National Guard than you might think. There is a particular park the feds are not being allowed into, near Eagle Pass, because they were doing harm to the border. But they can do their business everywhere else. They are not harmed or hindered. They’re stirring up conflict. It’s just that the administration doesn’t want Texas interfering with its plan to destroy America by erasing the southern border and letting our enemies pour in.

 

Additional Resources

·        Republican governors DRAW THE LINE on Biden’s border invasion” Glenn Beck, January 25, 2024.       

·        26 States REBEL Against Biden Administration,” Facts Matter with Roman Balmakov, January 26, 2024. 

·        Civil War Echoes: Unpacking Governor Abbott's Defiance in the Texas Border Clash” The Patriot Nurse, January 25, 2024. 

·        The Secret Network Helping Biden Fuel the Border Invasion | Ep 329” Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024.  (This video includes the interview with Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.)

·        Texas Declares INVASION and REJECTS Federal Government's Border Authority” Robert Gouveia, January 25, 2024. 

·        ‘Installing MORE BARRIERS’: Texas SLAMS SCOTUS razor wire ruling” Glenn Beck, January 24, 2024. 

·        Biden should know better than to start a fight with Texas” by Don Huffines, in The Telegraph, January 26, 2024.

·        What Happens if Joe Biden Tries to Take OverTexas National Guard?” by Ewan Palmer, Newsweek, January 26, 2024.