'Why doesn't anybody care?' Texas-Mexico border devastated by anti-migrant operation

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

‘Why doesn’t anybody care?’ Texas-Mexico border devastated by anti-migrant operation

Greg Abbott’s strategy to deter immigration isn’t just harming people and costing billions – it’s ruining the Rio Grande’s ecosystem

Michael Gonzalez in Eagle Pass
Sun 5 May 2024 15.00 BST
Last modified on Sun 5 May 2024 17.32 BST

Strong-arm strategies by Texas along the US-Mexico border have eroded more than human rights for migrants seeking asylum in the US; they have degraded the environment – and now the destruction is escalating.

In the hotspot of Eagle Pass, environmental damage from years of expansion of anti-migration security measures can be seen everywhere.

From the bald banks of the Rio Grande, cleared of lush vegetation to make roads for patrol vehicles, and the empty, rusty shipping containers blocking the river, to all the razor wire, the militarized scene contrasts starkly with the Mexican side of the river.

Now a new construction project is under way after the rightwing Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced a $170m, 80-acre facility dubbed Camp Eagle along the river to support up to 2,300 Texas national guards, signifying a more permanent presence of such troops in the area since the state deployed them in 2021, despite immigration enforcement being a federal jurisdiction. Land is being cleared apace.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/05/texas-mexico-border-immigration-strategy-environmental-devastation

[patphil]

1. It's all a big show for the election.

Permanently militarizing the border along the Rio Grande is costing Texans hundreds of millions of dollars. And for what? It's part of the circus act to create the illusion of a serious border problem that Washington won't fix. Of course the Republicans refused to forward a bill in Congress that would help fix the border problem, but they're not talking about that.
Trump says he'll fix it as president, but all he'll actually do is play the race card and keep anti-immigrant sentiments running high. If he actually fixed the problem, he wouldn't have an issue to rant and rave about in his never ending rallies.
All of his actions are based on one of three policies:
1) make as much money as possible in any way possible.
2) place blame on anyone or anything he doesn't like; never accepting responsibility for problems.
3) punish anyone who ever offended him.

Governor Abbott is just one of his toadies, doing what comes naturally in Trump World.