As Hurricane Dolly bears down on the Texas Rio Grande Valley, the chairman of the Texas Border Coalition (TBC) today protested construction of the border wall by the Department of Homeland Security during the hurricane season and urged the government to refocus its efforts on rebuilding the levees that should protect the people of the Valley.
"It is unbelievably foolish for the government to be attempting to destroy and rebuild the Rio Grande River levees in the middle of hurricane season," said Eagle Pass Mayor and TBC Chairman Chad Foster. "The footings of the levees are being destroyed in the construction process so that the Department of Homeland Security can erect 18-foot concrete walls in their place. It is incredibly short-sighted that the government would open the levees at the same time that the danger is highest for devastating floods in the middle of hurricane season."
Illegal immigration is a big thing here in Missouri, for some unknown reason. Like the folks in Texas, we are also more at risk for floods than the possibility that some terrorist will cross over the border between Mexico and the US.
Dolly is set to hit directly on the border between the US and Mexico, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Along the Rio Grande are the colonias, including Cameron Park outside of Brownsville, considered the poorest community in the US. The people there make an average of $4,000, annually. Most live in shacks without electricity and running water, on land sold by shady developers who promised these hard working people a decent community with all the utilities, took their money, and then skipped town.
What's sadder, is this is the community [2] that now President Bush wouldn't visit, or even acknowledge, when he was governor of Texas.
Ignored then. Ignored now.
Links:
[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/hello-dolly/story.aspx?guid={D8B4B239-52A2-4DC4-A146-9241ECCADB0A}
[2] http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/10/13/lieberman.texas.ap/index.html