A Civil Cold War

Suddenly, Open Borders Advocates Care about Drownings Again

Good morning, friends,

We originally planned not to publish again so soon, feeling as though there wasn’t much to add to the press of what we thought was mostly factual coverage of recent events along the river in Eagle Pass. Of course, once we started looking into the recent drownings in the Rio Grande, we found that things were a little distorted. More on that in just a moment.

Texas State Guard Humvee Near Shelby Park, Eagle Pass/Courtesy: Jay Janner, Austin American Statesman

It was upon realizing that today, Monday, was Martin Luther King Day, our subconscious started doing that thing it does sometimes, where we start drawing connections between certain events and other material we’ve seen online, and we realized we had the hardest part of putting together a newsletter already knocked out.

It’d be a shame not to go the rest of the way, so here we are.

We are not the first to call what’s happening in Eagle Pass right now the beginnings of a Civil Cold War. To the best of our knowledge, that honor goes to writer and analyst Todd Bensman, effectively diagnosing what is happening even before DPS and Texas Military Forces began denying access to Shelby Park, where up until recently Border Patrol has been processing all comers.

It is a frustrating sort of middle ground, for some border hawks, who would like to see an even more muscular effort and response from the Governor. As it is, the move is mostly symbolic, as even DPS and others acknowledge that most migrants are now simply crossing at different areas away from Shelby Park.

However, they do note that it is a much bigger inconvenience than most American observers probably realize. As it is, it’s an excellent piece of disobedience, in our opinion— forcing the Federal Government to react but react carefully. Putting a foot wrong in this case, is guaranteed to exacerbate the Federal Government’s problems and actually strengthen the support Texas has. As a chess move, it may not be perfect, but we do believe it’s a good one. It beats playing checkers. We hope we’re not giving the Governor’s Office too much credit.

Speaking of checkers, a lot of bloviation the last couple of days on the basis of a statement written by US Congressman Henry Cuellar, excoriating Texas for somehow “letting” a mother and two children drown while denying Border Patrol access to the boat ramp in Shelby Park.

Well, wouldn’t you know— the truth is much more nuanced, once reality has had the last at-bat.

Here’s the Texas Military Department’s response:

There’s a lot to say here. Let’s start with the fact that migrants have been drowning in this river in large numbers for the duration of the border crisis, and it is some kind of special stupid to suddenly be offended on their behalf when clearly these people who are pretending to care haven’t cared one single bit this whole time. Indeed, they’ve been ignoring the deaths, as if they’re an appropriate sacrifice on the altar of whatever monetary and other goals that are being pursued here.

The key takeaway here is that Border Patrol was actually trying to get at two other migrants that might’ve been traveling with that mom and two kids and were being blocked from doing so. That’s what’s got them so upset.

Henry Cuellar should’ve known better, and we are deeply disappointed in him and his staff. Indeed, few national politicians along the river are as familiar with how dangerous the river is. We must consequently assign the most cynical and opportunistic motives for him to suddenly be opening his mouth about it now.

There’s also something to be said about what may be a disturbing one-sided culture of laziness that has been permitted to grow along the riverbanks.

It seems quite likely and obvious that Mexican authorities have been permitted to largely ignore their own responsibilities for water rescue and other matters on their side of the river. And why shouldn’t they? Border Patrol will do the work— US taxpayers will pay— Esta bien.

And yet, when they want to insist on their own jurisdictional boundaries extending into the middle of the waters, they do.

In other words, to borrow from deeper thinkers, they want to have their cake and eat it too.

This also is compounded by the corruption involved. Promise you folks— some of the same authorities responsible for rescuing people from the Mexican side of the river are also the same people trafficking these migrants.

We all say Cartel, but in Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuna, what’s really meant is the corrupt local institutions that are historically reliant on the “mordida” for their pay, that have maintained control over the local plazas, and seem to have kept out the more violent gangs that govern in the style of the CJNG, or the Golfo Cartel.

So, shame on Henry Cuellar, and shame on all these other shovelheads that have been ignoring the near daily calls for water rescues and drownings in Eagle Pass up until now. Indeed, local water rescue and EMS are beyond overwhelmed.

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in the city’s backyard has become too much for some of Mello’s toughest firefighters to bear.

“One of the lead swift water rescue guys never complained in his life,” he said. “And one day out of the blue, he just said, ‘I’m tired of going out there. I’m tired of seeing dead people.’ That really hits home.”

While the state and federal governments continue to clash over how to address the border problems, Mello and his crew prepare for the next surge.

“I’m hoping that it, it completely stops,” he said. “But, then again, history has told us that it’s not so.”

—Eagle Pass Fire Chief Manuel Mello, transcript taken from a KSAT-12/San Antonio News Report dated 1 day ago.

All of those deaths, and these most recent ones, are actually on the heads of the White House and every other enabler of this crisis, encouraging the bringing of untold record numbers of poor people here, only for them to be victimized over and over again.

Allowing them to enter the United States— rewarding the dirtbags trying to take advantage of them— is not any kind of a solution to the problem. It only makes it worse and encourages more to come.

Is it possible that the Texas Military Department is lying? Sure. Is it possible that the Feds are lying? Sure. So how do you choose between the two? Well, one’s from Texas. And the other’s been lying throughout the length of this whole crisis.

That clear it up? Anyone want to give odds on whether or not national press will be running any corrections, given the State’s rebuttal? We won’t hold our breath.

Weird.

Today is Martin Luther King Day. And we are reminded of a past Dispatch that found parallels between the seminal human rights song “Strange Fruit,” and a lesser-known feature of border smuggling culture: The Rape Trees.

Like the drownings in Eagle Pass, it is notable how the rape culture along the border is ignored as soon as it is no longer a suitable weapon to be used against whomever is in power.

Some organizations must surely suffer from some sort of a collective whiplash with how quickly they recoil from the subject depending on the occupancy of the White House.

Anyway— here’s what we said back in 2022:

We write this dispatch after dark, as the official Martin Luther King Federal Holiday draws to a close. In 1939, legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday sang the song “Strange Fruit.”

The opening lyrics are here:

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees”

It’s a song about lynching. And the history of the song is something to read. And it should be a source of great shame for anyone to realize that trees along the border today still sometimes bear their own form of strange fruit. The women may survive their ordeal— but that is no excuse for the hollow, two-faced border policies that have persisted for so long and produced their own special, sick miseries.

—A Past Dispatch, from January 22, 2022.

If you’re one of our new readers and you don’t know what the heck we’re talking about here— don’t worry, here’s the whole thing, we called it “A Cost Measured in Misery.”

Keeping it short today. It’s a holiday. And, we have chores.

As always, this newsletter is an independent work product and should not be confused for any sort of official communication on behalf of Kinney County government, despite our employment there. It is produced without any kind of oversight and any errors, misdeeds, or other issues are entirely our own.

Have a great day— we’ll see you again soon.