The Texas Border: Warzone or Asset?

Introduction 

The Texas/Mexico border is constantly portrayed as an area of complete chaos, where criminals roam the streets and innocent people fear to leave their houses.  Undocumented workers have been made scapegoats over the loss of American jobs.  The current administration has played on these myths to promote an agenda that wins political points but ignores the reality of the situation.   

Governor Perry’s Agenda 

Starting in 2005, with “Operation Linebacker,” Governor Perry has continually pursued a policy of spending millions of Texas taxpayer dollars to increase police efforts at the border. In 2007, Governor Perry took this approach to all-new levels and worked with the legislature to pass Senate Bill 11 (SB 11) nicknamed “Operation Border Star”, which allocated $110 million dollars to police the border.  In 2009, he further escalated state involvement, allocating another $110 million dollars to the border and sent squads of Texas Rangers to the border to police the region.   

Governor Perry supports 287(g) and “Secure Communities,” two Homeland Security programs designed to give local law enforcement the ability to detain undocumented workers and turn them over for deportation.  Working with local officials, including Mayor Bill White, these programs have been implemented in many areas across Texas.  Studies have shown in both programs, the majority of those targeted have been caught in routine traffic stops.  This allows some bad apple police officers to racially profile Hispanics and promotes a culture of fear in the Hispanic community.  Furthermore, it diverts police attention from catching violent criminals and instead uses them to check immigration status.   

Governor Perry has also been amongst the staunchest advocates for a “wall” along the Texas border.  Putting aside the catastrophic impact on the environment and endangered species, not to mention the economic impact, Homeland Security officials under former President Bush concede the wall will, at best, add 5 minutes to those attempting to cross over the border (not even taking into account over half of those in the country without documentation came here legally and overstayed their visas).   

These policies of attempting to spend our way out of the problem combined with committing police forces from across the state to a mission of apprehending all undocumented workers have proven to be, at best, a temporary solution.  Building a wall would do nothing to solve any problems and would create a new litany of problems.  At the current rate of escalation, Governor Perry will soon declare the entire border area a war zone.  There simply must be a better way. 

The Reality 

In reality, Mexico represents the second largest export market for the United States and the third largest import market.  When oil is taken out of the equation, the “trade gap” almost disappears, meaning we are exporting almost as much as we are importing.  Texas is the biggest trading partner with Mexico and has, in fact, more exports than any other state in the US.  Laredo is the largest inland port and accounts for 47% of US exports to Mexico.  Clearly, the border presents an economic engine for Texas that the current administration fails to ever address.  Furthermore, undocumented workers actually contribute more to the local economies via increased production and sales taxes paid than they utilize.  Thus, in reality, they are a net positive for the communities in which they reside. 

So what about all of those undocumented immigrants contributing to violent crime?  Well, the reality is far more benign.  In truth, there is a drug war going on in Mexico.  However, it has largely not crossed over the border.  Furthermore, it is a war conducted by highly organized gangs.  Trying to capture those gang members by stopping all undocumented workers is like looking for a needle in a haystack.   

The Shami Texas/Mexico Border Plan 

Encourage Industry Cluster Development

The most important step we can take is to work working with local officials along the border and their counterparts in Mexico and to create industry clusters along the border.  This means we would build high skill, capital intensive operations on this side of the border that utilizes low skill, affordable labor across the border.  A comprehensive approach, led from the Governor’s mansion, would significantly increase trade. 

Work with Undocumented Workers to Capture Gang Members

Quite simply, undocumented workers must not be afraid of police officials.  To that end, we must immediately stop checking immigration status during all but Level One offenses (murder, rape, drug trafficking, etc).  We must initiate a public affairs campaign to let undocumented workers know they are safe in coming to the police.  Furthermore, we can work with the US government to create a policy that grants legal status to any undocumented worker that provides information leading to the arrest of gang members. 

Additionally, we must work to shut down the gangs’ drug distribution centers in major urban areas throughout the state.  Mayor Bill White missed a major opportunity, by failing to implement the policy advocated above and instead focusing on deporting undocumented workers—presumably to win reelection as Mayor and position himself as a “moderate.”   

Build New Interstates to Facilitate Greater Trade Opportunities

We need additional interstates from the border, connecting the Valley with the rest of the state’s road system.  This will promote additional trade and help make the McAllen/Brownsville/Harlingen areas into inland ports as large as Laredo.   

Increase Educational Opportunities for the Border Area

In order to have high skill manufacturing on this side of the border, we need high skill workers on this side of the border.  Thus, we must massively increase expenditures on universities and vocational-technical schools in the valley.  These investments in education will provide the workforce necessary to do the kinds of jobs that provide the greatest trade benefit. 

Modernize Infrastructure of Border Communities

First and foremost, we must solve the Colonia problem.  Texas has over 2,000 Colinas, primitive shack communities without any basic services—sewers, electricity, roads, etc.  This isn’t just bad policy; it’s immoral!  We must ensure all people living in the valley have access to clean water and electricity.  Nobody in America should endure conditions like these, yet approximately half a million Texans do.  Lifting these people out of third-world conditions is the first step to making them the high skill workforce we need on the border.  Beyond that, we must ensure that industry has enough power, water broadband access and other infrastructure to build manufacturing plants.   

Ensure Adequate Healthcare in Border Communities

Access to quality healthcare is vital to the quality of life for any community.  In order to bring in new industry, we must ensure these companies know their employees will have access to the best medical care available.  This means we must work to modernize medical facilities on the border and bring in new doctors to care for the people of this region. 

Conclusion 

We must stop looking at the border as a problem and start looking at it as an economic engine that will help Texas continue to grow.  The current administration has worked to turn the border into a warzone. We can work with the Mexican government to end gang violence by implementing a new policy of cooperation and utilizing undocumented workers to uncover the gang members, verses merely deporting everyone in sight in the hopes we can find the needle in the haystack.   

Our border is our future.  It is an area poised for unprecedented growth that has the potential to become amongst the most prosperous manufacturing areas in the country.  With bold leadership and Farouk Shami at the helm, we can help ensure this happens.