SocraticGadfly: All things Texas border: A roundup

February 07, 2024

All things Texas border: A roundup

First, I think it's kind of funny that Wallbuilder Joe has either actually pissed off, or else, more likely, caused major loss of face at home, to Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Speaking of? The Monthly drops in on Eagle Pass and says it's become a "movie set" fulled with political posturing, especially by wingnut media and then by wingnut state guvs, non-Texas division. 

A second piece looks at how the Border Patrol and DPS, once, and recently, bosom buddies enough that Strangeabbott's Operation Lone Star got takeoff assistance from the BP, have now become frenemies at best. The Lone Star aid from Wallbuilder Joe is itself semi-disgusting, and probably is a partial explainer of why Biden has yet to federalize the Texas National Guard. That aid didn't just start with the tonks on the ground with the BP. Oh, the piece is another good argument for us going back to the old system of putting BP agents on a 4-5 year rotation, like Methodist preachers.

In light of all that, is "Texit" moving closer to reality in light of the SCOTUS ruling on border razor wire? Maybe Texit lite? The Monthly looks. Realistically, as people who read such things know, in terms of dinero, Texas is a "taker" state, not a "donor" state, on net federal government money. If it seceded, all US military bases would close. All defense contractors would have to leave the state to keep US DoD dollars.

Steve Vladeck takes his own long look at federalism versus state immigration enforcement.

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