Solving National Problems At The State Level

Our southern border is a mess, and it is not getting any better. When Title 42 officially expires effective May 23, the southern border will become even more of a mess. This has been a nightmare for border states.

On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about one state’s efforts to deal with the current and coming border crisis.

The article reports:

Gov. Greg Abbott late Friday signed his fourth memorandum of understanding in three days with another Mexican governor as part of his commitment to secure Texas’ shared border with Mexico.

The signing came as a fourth bus transporting illegal immigrants released by the Biden administration into Texas reached Washington, arriving Saturday morning.

Abbott met Friday with Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca in Weslaco, Texas. They signed a memorandum of understanding designed to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas and improve the flow of commercial traffic across the international bridge.

The agreements were reached within a week of Abbott ordering enhanced inspections of commercial vehicles as part of the state’s expanded border security efforts through Operation Lone Star. The inspections led to major backlogs, protests by Mexican commercial truck drivers, cartel operatives setting fire to vehicles, and commercial traffic being ground to a halt.

Despite criticism of Abbott’s plan, within a week, an agreement was reached with four Mexican governors in states where international bridges connect Texas and Mexico.

“Border governors can achieve results when we work together and put the safety of our constituents first,” Abbott said. “I am grateful for the partnership of Governor Cabeza de Vaca as we work to secure our border.”

Because Cabeza de Vaca presented such a detailed plan to secure the border, Abbott said the Texas Department of Public Safety would return to its previous strategy of randomly searching commercial vehicles coming through ports of entry.

“While President [Joe] Biden ignores the ongoing crisis at the border, the state of Texas will continue to work with heads of state in Mexico to further strengthen our comprehensive border strategy,” he said.

The Preamble of the United States Constitution states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Our present administration is not living up to that ideal. It is the responsibility of our government to secure our borders. Until the government does what it is supposed to, the states will be obligated to protect themselves from the flood of illegals attempting to enter America.

Texas Gets It Right

Hot Air reported the following today:

Two months after dropping mask mandate, Texas reports zero COVID deaths in a day.

The article includes the following Tweet:

Does anyone remember how Texas was treated in the media when they ended their mask mandate?

The article also notes the decrease in Covid cases nationally:

With just 17,834 cases nationally, the U.S. just had the lightest day for COVID that it’s had since the first weeks of the pandemic last March. Again, that surprisingly low number is probably the product in part of a “weekend effect” in which states are doing less reporting. But we’ve had 60 weekends or so since the virus arrived last spring and have never hit a total as low as we did yesterday. Slowly but surely, we’re vaccinating our way out of a crisis.

The Covid epidemic is slowing down. There are still some pessimistic reports that it will pick up when people go inside during the summer, but right now it is slowing down. Part of that may be due to the vaccine, and part of it may be due to the fact that the virus may have run its course (as SARS did). I am  hopeful of the latter.

The Consequences Of A Porous Border

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the drug smuggling that is going on at our southern border.

The article reports:

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) stated that there has been a nearly “800% increase April over April” in the amount of fentanyl coming across the border apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety. And that there has been enough fentanyl obtained to kill everyone in New York.

Abbott said, “I’ve got to tell you, Steve, there’s something else, a new dynamic about what’s going on at the border that Americans need to know about, and that is the increased apprehension of fentanyl coming across the border. Yes, there may be people coming across the border. But there [are] dangerous drugs coming across the border. For your audience who may not know, two milligrams of fentanyl is a fatal dose. And so, know this, we had…[an] almost 800% increase April over April of the amount of fentanyl that has been apprehended by the Texas Department of Public Safety. We have obtained enough fentanyl coming across the border to kill every single person in the state of New York.”

It is time to finish the wall and close the southern border. What is happening now strengthens the drug cartels and endangers the lives of Americans.