Border Stuntz and Trickz
And, More News Coverage of Militia Activity Along the Border
Good Morning Friends,
Odds are you’ve already heard the breathless news coverage after Governor Greg Abbott’s latest appearance in Uvalde, TX.
We weren’t present, but we didn’t have to be. Many others were, and they’re all reporting the same thing— the Governor’s remarks that he’s going to send all the bad illegal aliens to Washington DC on buses.
On the face of it, it seems like the kind of childish planning that a 5 year old might settle on. Not your precociously intelligent nephew, niece, or cousin— but that low-development sugar gobbling nutcase of a 5 year old you don’t like.
Maybe there’s something to it, but 5 minutes of critical thinking suggests this is just another round of cynical business-as-usual border stunts and tricks for headlines that is either technically ill-advised at best or unworkable at worst.
How on earth are any illegal aliens going to be kept on any of the 900 buses supposedly earmarked for the job of a 2 or 3 day drive to the East Coast? Will they be handcuffed to their seats? Doors locked? How’s that going to work once the lawsuits start flying? What do you do when the Mayor of DC decides to bar those buses from entry? What happens when a bus breaks down? Good grief.
As one local wag suggests, (and not the usual local wag we’ve come to count on for funny takes,) if one is serious about their political stunts, it would be better to put them on a plane and fly them directly to Reagan or Dulles Intl. and cut them loose to wander aimlessly, jamming the airport up, with no time for attorneys and political opponents to find a way to block your move. If you’re going to be “cruel” be “cruel.” No half measures.
That’s the giveaway right there— odds are the Governor’s hoping a nice cease and desist from the Justice Department will arrive to keep him from having to make good on the plan.
If nothing else, others online have already said it: “If you can ship ‘em to Washington D.C. why the hell can’t you just ship ‘em back home?”
Actually, the Governor says it won’t just be buses, there’ll be flights too.
OK.
Oh, and the illegals won’t be scooped up fresh from the border— they’ll only be ones that are 100% processed and cleared by Homeland Security.
Uh huh.
Complicated business, folks— except that it shouldn’t be. But here we are anyway.
Here’s the Texas Tribune’s take on the matter, tying the Governor’s words back to the expected departure of Title 42. It’s a pretty satisfactory round-up of dismay coming the Governor’s way from both left and right— he’s getting both barrels, as it were.
Longtime readers may recognize what we’re about to do next— now’s about the time where we try and make sense out of the nonsense.
In his defense, the Governor’s trying to keep the wolves off his back, politically, and come up with some way to get a handle on estimates from the Federal Government that more than 18,000 illegal aliens will be crossing every day once Title 42 goes away.
Where’s the calculator? That’s half a million people every month.
4 months of that, and you have the population of Nebraska.
As we mentioned in the last dispatch, secret documents leaked from Homeland Security already spell it out that the Feds don’t really have a plan at all for how to handle this.
It must be overwhelming to know that the Federal Government has sociopathically abdicated all responsibility for this mess, and is waiting to metaphorically club you over the head for trying to intervene on your own hook.
In any event, it sounds like the Governor and his people have a few more cards to play, also announcing plans to conduct a rigorous system of safety inspections on all incoming 18-wheeler traffic coming up from Mexico.
Everyone, including the Governor, knows this will slow international trade to a crawl. Speaking as someone who’s driven an 18-wheeler a time or two, the freight companies and the major corporations relying on NAFTA will be screaming to the rafters, putting pressure on Mexico and the U.S. Government both to do something.
Truth is, if you take just about any random 18-wheeler on the road today and search hard enough and long enough, you’ll find something to write up a ticket on. And the ones you don’t? Good job driver— it’s been an hour or two— go on about your way.
There’s apparently also some talk about boats and concertina wire at low water crossings, but who knows if any of that will actually happen— the meat of the matter is the enhanced safety inspections, if you want to talk about actually accomplishing something.
It’s possible to feel a little sympathy for the impossible situation the Governor finds himself in, while still being frustrated with the lack of any easy, clear, decisive moves of the sort that everyone will stand up and immediately applaud, knowing upon hearing it that it will work and be good. Fact is, universal acclaim like that is for fairy tales and Hollywood movies. Kid stuff. Like the idea that you’ll be able to drop illegal aliens on Washington D.C. without the legal blockades you’ve already demonstrated extreme allergies to.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned so far, have been Conservative calls for the Governor to exercise the “Article I” option. “Article I” refers to a part of the U.S. Constitution, specifically: Article I, Section 10, Clause 3, where states reserved their sovereign authority to act in the protection of their citizens when threatened by “invasion or imminent harm.”
Normally, the Federal Government is expected to act in Defense of Invasion— that too is spelled out in the Constitution— but Article I was included in case the Federal Government failed or was unable to do so.
Pretty simple. Pretty clear cut. But, perhaps also scary to contemplate. Definitely “out there,” for some folks who prefer to think of the Constitution as some vague thing that other than a few guiding principles, doesn’t have much to say about day-to-day life in the U.S. today.
Find an op-ed here, written by Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith, laying out the rationale. The argument suggests that the Constitution remains more than just a batch of suggestions that Washington D.C. politicos and others can merely pay lip service to.
So far, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has not issued an official opinion on the matter of whether or not what’s happening qualifies as an “invasion” in the Constitutional sense. His counterpart in Arizona has.
See our earlier reporting on that here:
This brings us to another section of today’s Dispatch, and the need to update our reporting on the West Nueces Wildfire. Contrary to original speculation, it now seems the fire had nothing to do with illegal alien traffic.
Apparently, a local property owner was fibbing when initially questioned about doing any brush burning in the area. A Texas A&M Forest Service investigator was able to get to the bottom of things, and the land owner owned up to it.
It is times like these, friends, that remind us— no matter how world weary and jaded we might feel at times— or even pretend to be— deep down inside of us there is still that wide-eyed gullible kid that was prone to believing all kinds of garbage.
“I didn’t do it.” “I was at my sister’s house.” “The check is in the mail.”
Perhaps there’s something to be said in favor of such eternal optimism that “Gee, deep down inside, people are good and wanna do good,” but at times like these one can’t help but feel a little embarrassed at not even questioning initial claims that there had been no unauthorized burning in the area.
It is embarrassing to have fastened so readily onto the possibility that illegal alien traffic was responsible. Embarrassing to have been so glibly presented with it and to have bit down so hard— like some big, stupid freshwater fish, failing to notice the glittering metal hook when presented with a fat juicy worm.
Wrapping this up: about 1760 acres burned. Local firefighters were separated from their families for almost a full week combatting the thing, trying to get it under control in the middle of some very rough and difficult countryside. We’re told the person responsible faces many possible consequences, including fines from the state and possible civil lawsuits.
And finally this morning, another fresh new article taking a look at the Patriots for America Militia group, active in Kinney County off and on for several months now and now also active in Maverick County as Operation Lone Star gets underway there.
Longtime readers know, it’s been a complicated subject— one we could perhaps be accused of waffling back and forth on.
Here it is— in the pages of Texas Monthly, by reporter James Dobbins, who basically “embedded” with the group for some time.
The headline reads: “A Texas County Welcomed a Border Militia Last Fall. Now Some Officials Have Grown Weary of It.”
Like we said— complicated.
Go back to last October, when the PFA first appeared in the County. At the time, there was no sign of any aid or help forthcoming from the State. Operation Lone Star had been in effect, technically, for months already. But other than some extra troopers and word that Texas Military Forces were going to be in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Kinney County was going to be on it’s own.
Consequently— the possibility of volunteers from elsewhere in the State seemed like all anyone could hope for and count on. There seemed to be bold but vague plans of somehow establishing a training program involving retired Border Patrol Agents in the community and perhaps also some kind of subordination to the Sheriff’s Office. It would’ve been, in essence, the creation of a County-based Brush Team, somewhat similar to the DPS Brush Teams which have been so effective.
That all went away as word got out and minds were changed in Austin. Perhaps they hadn’t done their homework about how things were going to work— about the need for an enthusiastic local partnership to actually prosecute trespassing cases. Money and personnel were shifted to Kinney County, largely eliminating the perceived need for volunteer militia. Indeed, there were rumblings at the time that DPS was going to yank all support if a militia was active in the County.
Since then, DPS and the Sheriff have walked such talk back and distanced themselves from it.
Through it all, the PFA and Sam Hall have come and gone from Kinney County on several occasions, doing their thing as described in Texas Monthly, and seeing some criticism in past dispatches here.
We’ve described their efforts as mostly symbolic. We have even been a little unfair maybe. Perhaps over-compensating for a certain amount of native sympathy for any group of 40-something year old men and women who’ve woken up one day and decided they aren’t living the life they should. People who’ve taken it upon themselves to do something meaningful during this slave-age of credit card debt, education debt, housing debt, and streaming video anesthetization.
Indeed— the final lines of Mr. Dobbins’ piece speak most loudly to us— voiced by a PFA member, summing up his own participation in their efforts:
The militia returned to its base shortly before 1 a.m. Some went to bed. Others stayed up late, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes as Hall told stories of long-ago dating mishaps. Though they’d failed to catch any migrants, a few in the militia nonetheless considered the night a success. “Out here,” Cramer told me, “it feels like you’re doing something instead of sitting on the couch and getting mad.”
Reporter James Dobbins, Texas Monthly
Reading the comments below the article, it seems Texas Monthly and Mr. Dobbins are taking their share of heat for the piece from conservative Texans. Not uncommon. Comes with the territory.
From what we can tell, Mr. Dobbins conducted himself with integrity, while still aggressively pursuing various angles to this story while in Kinney County and chasing down contacts with various County officials.
Some critics have taken issue with the headline that Texas Monthly editors have selected for the piece— but it’s not hard to guess that some County officials might be weary of defending themselves against incessant claims of racism that are in part fueled by the presence of “spooky” volunteers with scary black rifles.
In the end, volunteers wanting to help secure the border are always going to be subject to certain amounts of scrutiny, fair or unfair. The fact that they are subject to all the same laws as any other private citizen would seem to do little to dispel suspicions.
Compounding their difficulties— the same urges that compel people to be careful with their belief— careful with their support— compels a certain amount of wariness. No one wants to be thought a fool. And we will not cease in suggesting that any and all be very careful with making donations to any organization saying it’s going to help with border-related issues.
Ignoring PFA, which at least is actually putting some shoe leather to work, there is no shortage of grifters out there sensing a chance for a dirty buck or three. And, they do not limit themselves to approaching private citizens. County leaders elsewhere along the border will have their hands full trying to discern between people with legitimate and actionable efforts and clever shysters with ideas on how to scoop up some of that Operation Lone Star good good.
Fraud is nothing new, of course— but emergencies and the associated smoke make it harder to see clearly.
And on that note— we’re going to call it even for now. We hope this newsletter finds you well. Keep them toes tapping, and keep them heads clear, we’ll be back again soon enough.
As always, we hasten to mention our employment with the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office in the spirit of full-disclosure and in keeping with the County’s regulations regarding social media. Any opinions and any errors expressed here in this newsletter are ours alone and not statements of Kinney County policy.
Too bad there's an election coming up. Campaign rhetoric as usual. Nothing will be done 'till there's no alternative. Great to have info with humor. Thanks.