Facts and Issues on the Border

                                        A Bit of History about the Border Issues

        Until the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, the southern part of what is now Arizona was part of Mexico. Earlier most of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California were settled by the Spanish who either took over most of the land and/or intermarried with native people of the region. It was not all “Mexico” per se but essentially much the same. Until the early 1800s very few Northern Europeans had set foot much past the Mississippi River, if even that far west.

A bit about me here for other background. I earned both a BS and MA in History from NAU in 1969 and 1970. Mexico and the western US were a major focus of my studies under two well respected professors, Dr Guy Bensusan and Dr Larry McFarlane. I feel they taught me well and although this was some years ago, the basic historical facts have not changed in any major way. Attitudes may have changed but facts have not. I do not write from lack of knowledge on this subject.

As another aspect, I arrived in Arizona in January 1946 at about 33 months of age. I was an only child for my first 9 years and had little interaction with other children so I paid a lot of attention to the adults that came and went through my home. From about 5 or 6 I heard adults talking about what were then aspects of the interface between Mexican people and the “Anglos.” Jerome, where we lived, had a large Mexican community and at that time they were not permitted to work underground. By the 1960s this changed and many did become hard rock miners in Arizona's many large mines.Two Mexican families involved in that were next door neighbors in Clarkdale after we moved down there. It was the smelter town for the Jerome mines at that time.

Jumping ahead, I moved to Bisbee in 1970 after I had started work at Fort Huachuca and the next year married my newly widowed next door neighbor who by then was a city policeman in Bisbee but had worked in Yuma law enforcement for several years earlier. His beat was the barrio and slum area in Yuma and he  got to know many Mexican nationals who were working on farms under the Bracero “green card” program which functioned well for many years.  As with the mostly black transients, a hold over from the hoboes of the Depression era, he might arrest one for petty theft or drunk and disorderly occasionally and two or more years in a row,  they would usually have a different social security number and sometimes name. This is significant as I will explain later. It is unfortunate that this legal work program got entangled in other issues and ceased because it was reasonable and worked well. Yes, they sent home  Levi's and a few 30-30s in duffle bags and cheap footlockers bu tthey were not criminals nor gang members.

My brother Charlie put in 38 years with the railroads in Colorado, first with the Rio Grand and then with the Southern Pacific and finally Union Pacific as mergers occurred. Since about 28 of those years were in the maintenance field, he worked with a number of Mexicans, both citizens and non citizens. Again they had to get a social security number to work,  butmostly  came and went and did not keep just one card. 

In short,  people have gone back and forth from Mexico to the southwestern US for at least a couple of centuries. Many families are spread across the border and generally did not really notice there was a ‘line’. However that is not to say the Border was ever actually OPEN in the last 125 years. There were formal crossing stations and at least mostly a standard barb wire ranch type fence marked the border.  People were sometimes apprehended if they caused any problems, had no documents or proof of their citizenship and some were deported. This occurred with renewed vigor as a ‘political’ issue under several administrations, both Republican and Democratic. That is historically verifiable.

Although the border was not open, it was never really closed either and probably cannot really become closed..  It is not feasible to build a ‘wall’ from Texas's Gulf of Mexico shore to the Pacific coast of California. Much of the country is very rugged, remote desert and wilderness in many sections.  And practicality renders the current fragmented  wall of imperfect value. A good cutting torch or carbide blade can zip through those metal panels like wet paper and create any size gap desired. There are many cases where this is documented. Tunnels can be made under it and drones and small unmarked planes can slip over it as easily as a vulture or hawk. It is NOT impervious, whoever 'pays for' it!

So now here we are today. The Republicans saw a fine hobby horse  they could ride to popularity by telling many people who had no idea what the real situation was that this was a huge issue that must be dealt with at once, a critical threat to the nation and all citizens!! Your jobs were being stolen! Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security were siphoned off by billions to illegals! Tell me, how many regular citizens do you personally know who have lost jobs or cannot get one because an illegal person has been hired?  I’ll wait. How many younger citizens really want to work 12 hours in the fields for minimum wage at best on farms or equal time in a dairy farm, ranch or other agricultural operation?  And how many young ladies are lining up to clean motels and hospitals, to do house cleaning or care for children while parents are at work? To wash dishes or other menial chores in eateries? And how come the construction industry is spending large amounts on trade schools and apprenticeships to try to convince our young people to become plumbers, carpenters, electricians, roofers  etc. since they are literally begging for employees? We have a housing crisis,or so we are told, and many are homeless because there are not enough smaller or midsized homes available.  Let’s get real.

Back to the billions stolen from programs to support and assist everyone. It is illegal and almost impossible for a non-citizen to access Medicare/Medicaid. They do check IDs. Believe it.  The aliens who got those one-time social security cards will never draw what they and their employers paid in because they did not keep an account long enough to even get invested, much less to have a way to access the system. If any have managed to squeak through,  they would not number in the thousands and the funds they got would hardly break anyone’s bank. How about all those FEMA dollars going to provide all sorts of services to those hoards of invaders? Again, although in major disaster areas everyone’s ID might not be checked, but widespread distribution in areas not officially declared a disaster simply does not happen.  A lot of people have been conned, lied to and mislead in this whole scenario. Many do not know. Mr Musk surely does not know and I suspect Mr Trump does not either. If they even care to find out... One reason many  cities have been screaming the blues about the 'invaders' is that the efederal government never coughed up many funds  funds to help house and care for them whether they were 'welcomned or not.  Was it the states' problem or just whose? 

Admittedly due to advocacy by unknown individuals/organizations who went into many regions and encouraged or almost insisted people to migrate from Mexico, Central and South America and even Africa and Asia, a considerable tide of people came and where the wall did not exist or in remote areas they poured in. However, the border was not “Open” or ignored. Many arrests were made and many people were deported since 2000 or earlier  on a continuous basis.  Trying to process this rush of people did create a large problem and the Border Patrol and immigration officers were overwhelmed and got inadequate funds from the governments to do what they were trying to do. But looking back to 2000 or earlier , it was NEVER a “Democrat” or a “Republican” problem. Administrations of both struggled and floundered and tried to change with limited or almost no results. It has been ongoing since at least about 1965  and nobody has made a real serious effort to fix it. I doubt that they ever  will. The Republicans like a source of ‘cheap’ labor where they can ignore various protections and limits for workers mostly afraid to complain lest they be deported and the Democrats perhaps do want to be able to collect and quickly citizen-ize a bunch of people who will then  be indebted to them. With so much to gain, why fix it, really???  It is not really broken to them except in fictitious campaign promises. 

So today we have this huge effort to collect and  deport--and that includes any inconvenient souls who happen to get noticed or be in the way--or even  are needed to fill an ICE quota. It has now come to people simply vanishing and not only Latino or Islamic origin hoodlums, terrorists and gang members but in particular women  from Canada, Germany and other European countries who simply vanish without a clue or a trace and cannot be located. Are they imprisoned? Being trafficked? And of course any 'different' or difficult people such as trans, gays or overly vocal protesters.  It is just a matter of time until we will have an international incident because the wrong person had been taken away, one who creates a massive problem. This is in the news almost daily, maybe not on Faux Fox but Associated |Press and elsewhere. It is FACTUAL.  I don’t know about everyone else but I am seeing a hell of a lot wrong with this picture!  And I am sick and tired of the lies and half-truths, twisted facts and total bullshit. This is NOT making America ‘great’ again. Internationally we are seen as lower than most Banana Republics and third world 'shit hole countries.'