November 2021 – Ed Warner

Defending America

Republican Congressman Mike Turner told TV host Tucker Carlson that the U.S . should come to the aid of Ukraine, which faces a growing military threat from Russia. But why should we support Ukraine over Russia, asked Carlson, given Russia’s far greater importance as a counter weight to a military expansive and somewhat threatening China?

Moreover, he added, the U.S is currently challenged on the Mexican border where people we don’t know and drugs we know all too well are pouring across in unprecedented numbers. That’s where U.S.troops are needed, not as the Republicans imply, in Ukraine for some vague reason having nothing to do with the national interest. And why should our troops be defending other countries’ borders and not our own?

The U.S. Mexican border has been one of the world’s most contentious. It is long – 2000 miles through occasional difficult terrrain. Its boundary is the Rio Grande, a meandering river that sometimes changes course, leaving Mexicans and Americans on the wrong side. It has never been free of strife of one kind or another from early Indian raids to alternating Mexican and American cross border attacks to the current invasion of drugs and immigrants. In an explosion of manifest destiny in the 1840’s, the U.S. took half of Mexico. That more than sufficed. Ever since, it has been very wary of pushing Mexico too hard.

The result is limited use of the U.S. military. There’s a reluctance to militarize the border with the army invariably complaining that it doesn’t have enough troops to guard the border properly. While unsettling, that has not mattered too much except on some occasions like the arrival of Napoleon the Third to collect debts owed by Mexico. With the U.S. involved in Civil War, he decided to take over Mexico altogether and installed Austrian Archduke Maximilian as emperor. The U.S. and France almost came to blows, but Napoleon throught Mexico was not worth a war and retreated to deal with European affairs, leaving his well meaning protege to be executed.

Pancho Villa Photo by: www.britannica.com

Subsequent clashes were purely Mexican-American. Political upheaval was frequent in Mexico, and restless Texans were ready to take advantage of it. Amid the fervor of the times, a plan was circulated with the aim of recovering the half of Mexico lost to the U.S. The fiery Pancho Villa put his stamp on the effort by repeatedly conducting raids across the border that took American along with Mexican lives. As the U.S. readied for World War One, President Woodrow Wilson ordered General John Pershing to capture Villa with 20 thousand troops at his disposal Pershing became a victor in the World War but not in Mexico. The elusive Villa managed to escape, and the Americans came home without their quarry.

General John Pershing. Photo by: www.pbs.org

But the effort was not altogether in vain. It had made a point. The U.S army could cross the border if sufficiently motivated, take the necessary action and than return without staying too long – a limited engagement, not an invasion. There would be no repetition of the U.S.- Mexican war. Americans only had a quarrel with elements of Mexico, and that ended a few years later when Villa was killed by rivals who had nothing to do with the U.S.

In subsequent decades, border disturbances died down only to be revived more recently in another form. Instead of wanting to kill Americans, Mexicans now want to join them. Their plight is their drug cartel controlled country where their lives and livelihood are always in danger. U.S. troops once again on the border could send a clear message to the cartels: there are limits to their poisoning of America and their destruction of Mexico.

Border Crisis 3

Peaceful and quiet much of the time, Mexican border towns can suddenly erupt in violence under cartel provocation. Last month shooting broke out in Matamoros between police and members of the Gulf Cartel. Three of the drug group were killed along with a bystander. Two police were wounded

In a notable irony one of the deceased turned out to be Ariel Trevino, known as El Tigre, who was the cartel chief in the border town of Nuevo Progreso, a safe shopping stop for Americans and Mexicans alike. It’s heavily policed and considered free of violence. Perhaps El Tigre, before his fatal encounter, was a peacemaker among cartel chiefs. It can happen.

Nuevo Progreso stands out among Mexican border towns. It’s meant to allure passersby to its seemingly endless lines of closely packed shops in an arcade protected from the sun. It takes quite a while to navigate al these tempting offerings at rock bottom prices. I seemed to be the only gringo there on a festive Sunday, but you can’t really tell since most of us were pretty white.

First in line of eager sellers:- “Want a dentist!” To be followed by “Want some pills!” Want a hat!” Want a taco!” and as the line trails off and only males seem to linger, “Want a girl!” An interesting question is whether there are as many dentists as girls in the line. Probably a close call.

Nuevo Progresso, to be sure, is a detour from border towns more acclimated to violence. In Hildago on the US. side I drove into private farmland to reach the river. A lean watchful rancher was by the side of the road. Can I get to the Rio this way? I asked. “Depends who you are,” he replied. “I usually shoot people trying to steal on my property.” “Thanks for not shooting,” I said. “But I’m not a thief. I’m a journalist. Let’s talk.”

And that we did for a half hour. Chet Miller has a reputation in these parts. He speaks his mind and then acts on it. And he does shoot, sometimes to the annoyance of local law enforcement for which he has little respect. Given current conditions, he said, “you have to create your own law.”

He would have no hesitation to shoot a cartel member who trespassed on his land. “The cartels are afraid of me.” I couldn’t check this out with a cartel. So, I’ll have to take his word for it. He could be right.

The cartels don’t run into much opposition as they advance on the U.S. Is a lone gunman of uncertain temperament the best we can do? The U.S. Government and its attendant media don’t seem to take the border very seriously like, say, China’s threat to Taiwan. Yet the Chinese are not on our border threatening us. It’s wreckers of Mexico on their way to wrecking the U.S with their poison, more easily done than ever with the arrival of fentanyl, a speck of which can kill. Deaths by overdose are rapidly climbing in the U.S. A psychiatrist says drug abuse is likely when there’s so much available. The cartels see to that.

The only genuine solution is to seal the border with U.S. troops. They can stop the cartels from shooting over the border and crossing it. If necessary, they can pursue them into Mexico in the kind of raid at which the U.S. army is particularly skilled. The aim is not to repeat anything like the all-out war of the 1840’s but to show the cartels there are limits and to reduce their power and influence in Mexico. They have never been tested in this way.

Some border residents say many Mexicans would welcome this intervention given their ravaging by the cartels. Now Americans can come to the aid of both countries.

Border Crisis 2

Some 15 thousand Haitian migrants put Del Rio, a small U.S border town, on the map. They huddled together with minimal care under the bridge connecting to the Mexican town Acuna until they were hastily removed by embarrassed U.S. authorities. Some were flown back to Haiti, others crossed the river to Acuna, where Mexican authorities pushed them out. A few thousand were sent by bus and plane to sent to various parts of the U.S. where they will probably be allowed to stay.

*Thousands of undocumented migrants have camped under the International Bridge in Del Rio. (Credit: SBG)*

Today no trace of them remains under the bridge or the debris they let behind. Rio is is back to normal which means daily contact with Acuna. While migrants reach the town illegitimately by crossing the Rio Grande – the border – others legitimately use the bridge for their every day needs. Since almost all are Hispanic – same looks, same language – it’s sometimes hard to distinguish legal from illegal, as the Border Patrol has found.

But there’s one major distinction, according to residents. The people of del Rio who took the cumbersome route of becoming U.S. citizens, resent the illegals who may reap the same benefits by just showing up. It’s definitely not fair, they say, which explains a much higher Hispanic vote for Trump in the last election.

Bob Kapoor, a central fixture of del Rio, tracks the changing moods of his town. Owner of a hotel in the center of town, “Whispering Palms,” with a parrot that doesn’t whisper but whistles, he also manages an orphanage for 25 abandoned children in Acuna. If all roads don’t lead to Del Rio, his certainly did from a highly successful travel agency business to a snug perch on the border where he can sample two cultures.

As the migration crisis grows, Governor Abbott is under pressures to close the border, a difficult undertaking considering political opposition and limited resources. On a trip outside town with Bob and his wife Jyoti we came upon his efforts which are problematic. A fence under construction was quite a distance from the border. We asked a supervisor for the reason. He wasn’t sure. Perhaps we knew. It was also less than half the height of the thirty foot Trump fence which can be scaled by agile migrants. A worker explained that this fence is not meant to be climbed but to funnel migrants along the road into the waiting arms of state troopers. Governor Abbott assured Tucker Carlson that this will work. We’ll see.

I was surprised to find many pleasant homes along this scenic stretch of border. Isn’t it something of a risk living here? It’s possible that the drug cartels tell crossers not to make trouble for the homeowners. It’s bad for business, which comes first. It may also be the case that come what may – say, another flood of unwelcome guests – the people of Del Rio as well as others on the border will continue to lead their customary lives despite outside pressures. It’s a way of life.

Border Crisis 1

Texas Governor Greg Abbott calls the town of Roma the “hottest spot” on the border. With reason. The increasingly aggressive drug cartels are now shooting across the river in the direction of the Border Patrol who are not allowed to fire back. So far no one has been hit, but if he is?

The cartels who basically control the Mexican side of the border like to taunt the Border Patrol and see how far they can go. We’re told they harbor political ambitions beyond drug profits. Time to avenge the Mexican War of the 1840’s when half of their country was lost to the U.S.? The cartels are sufficiently ruthless, organized and wealthy beyond dreams of avarice to act on their ambition.

Their presence is felt in Roma and across the Rio Grande – the border – in the Mexican town Miguel Aleman. Having paid $10 thousand or more to the cartels or forced to carry their drugs to reach Roma, desperate migrants can be spotted daily. The river is shallow and easily crossed, and there are not enough border guards to be constantly on the watch.

“They come night and day,” says an employee at Jack in Box close to the river. Nothing special, she says. It’s just routine. “It’s easy to hide here,” says a saleswoman at the Dollar Store nearby. Migrants will duck behind the many tables of merchandise. The Border Patrol comes searching for them in a continual game of hide and seek

Some of the newcomers don’t even have to wade into the water. They try to cross the bridge from Aleman. They can be very inventive, says a U.S Customs agent on the bridge. “We get everything.”

The governor has sent the National Guard to the border, but they are unarmed and cannot detain the immigrants. They can only call the Border Patrol who may arrive too late to make an arrest. To keep bad news away, Border Patrol agents are told not to talk to outsiders like reporters. Please go to my superior, one will say, and the superior says the same all the way up to where? The White House? Out on the road, maybe a very dusty road, the BP tends to open up. They have a job to do and are doing it as best they can.

Miguel Aleman is a brisk sunny walk across the bridge from Roma. It’s quite similar to other Mexican border towns – colorful facades of shops that line the streets, lively people at work and play, and an abiding sense of poverty with the continuing background hum of drug cartel control. The town has been the center of a violent dispute between the Zetas and Gulf cartels with dead bodies appearing from time to time.

A group of undocumented immigrants wade across the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border in Roma, Texas. (credit: John Moore/Getty Images)

But Americans still arrive for good dentistry at a third of the cost back home. All kinds of other goods, respectable or not, are on sale at bargain prices. Is it safe to come and buy? Yes, provided you stick to your purchases and don’t go out of your way to antagonize anyone, especially a cartel member

A resident says that these days you don’t have to worry just about the cartels but also their imitators. Cartel violence is contagious and others have picked up the habit without the cartels’ more astute strategy. The cartels don’t like this, but they have only themselves to blame.

There are a few rather dowdy hotels in town which fill up with illegals on their way across the river. I’m told the cartels have also removed the town planting along the Rio in order to make a speedy getaway for migrants headed for Roma.

As Roma goes, it seems, so goes the border