Gov. Kristi Noem gleefully offers to bring razor wire to southern border, ignoring the deaths and misery
Gov. Kristi Noem would not use razor wire for the livestock on her ranch near Castlewood. It’s just too dangerous for those expensive animals.
But on people trying to enter the southern border? Sure, Noem is willing to employ that flesh-piercing fencing on them.
“If @GregAbbott_TX needs more razor wire, I’ll load it into a pickup myself,” she tweeted on Thursday, Jan. 25.
That’s typical Noem, a flippant comment about a serious issue. It’s sure to play well with her core constituency, people who hate immigrants and don’t mind the idea of them in pain.
Razor wire has become a symbol of the battle between the state of Texas and the federal government over the control of the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden administration has stated it has the power to order federal Border Patrol agents to remove concertina wire — also called razor wire — from stretches along border.
On Monday, Jan. 22, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to endorse that order. That would seem to be it, you would assume. If the president orders it and the highest court in the land backs that decision, it’s the end of the debate, right.
Not in this era, when defying the federal government is basically required for Republican politicians. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott insists he can order the Texas National Guard to erect more razor wire along the border.
Unless Biden nationalizes the Guard, it is under Abbott’s command.
It’s all just politics, right? No, it’s about human beings, including three who died along the border on Jan. 12. Victerma de la Sancha Cerros, 33, and her children, Yorlei Rubi, 10 and Jonathan Agustín Briones de la Sancha, 8, drowned in the Rio Grande River at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass in south-central Texas.
“Mexican immigration officials alerted Border Patrol agents at 9 p.m. that night that two migrants were in distress on the American side near the boat ramp at Shelby Park,” the Texas Tribune reported. “An hour earlier, a mother with two children drowned in the same area, according to the DOJ. When a supervising Border Patrol agent told National Guard troops at the park gate about the migrants in distress, one of them responded that they had orders to deny Border Patrol entry.
“The Border Patrol agent asked to speak with a National Guard supervisor, who told the agent that ‘Border Patrol was not permitted to enter the area even in emergency situations,’ according to the court filing.”A man drowned at the same location on Jan. 13.
Texas officials dispute this version of the incident. They claim the Border Patrol agents did not make it clear it was an emergency, and they believed Mexican officials had the situation under control.
Either way, Victerma de la Sancha Cerros and her two children are dead, and Gov. Noem offers to hand-deliver more razor wire.
No one disputes the fact that there is a crisis at the border. Thousands of people from Central America, Mexico and other nations around the world are entering the United States at the border. Up to 2 million are coming in without proper documentation.
They are fleeing poverty, government corruption and dangerous gangs. They are willing to risk arrest, deportation or drowning in a river lined with blockades (like the one in Arizona, pictured in a public domain image posted on wikimedia commons) and razor wire to try to find a better, safer life for themselves and their children.
Republicans assail Biden for having an “open border policy,” but they are not willing to make a deal with Democrats to try to stem the flow of immigrants.
A deal to impose stricter asylum protocols for migrants, add more personnel and technology at the border and try to persuade fewer people to begin the journey north was being put together. Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell were both on board.
The Senate paired it with aid for Ukraine, and it appeared to have a chance, but then former President Donald J. Trump said such a bill would be “meaningless” in terms of border security and “another Gift to the Radical Left Democrats.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson says even if the bill passes the Senate, it would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives. Instead, Johnson wants to move forward with the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Why? Politics. House Republicans realize even if they find enough votes to make Mayorkas the second cabinet member in history to be impeached, the Senate, controlled by Democrats, would not convict him. But they are following the lead of the odious Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to attack Mayorkas, Biden and Democrats.
All politics, all the time. Ignore the kids dying in a river.
“This unserious impeachment is a testament to partisan politics over rules and reason,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote in a letter to House Committee on Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.).
“Given the grave importance of impeachment — which you once described as ‘probably the most extreme remedy that our constitution affords for taking someone out of office’ — this Committee should do better,” Thompson wrote. “At the very least, it should follow the rules and practices established over more than two centuries of congressional history.”
This is an election year, so the idea of actually getting something meaningful done is out the window. This is a time for grandstanding and making meaningless speeches.
Meanwhile, Trump, who is bullying his way to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is using terms last heard by Adolf Hitler. He said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Noem, who openly aspires to be his running mate, has joined in that hateful rhetoric with her offer to bring more razor wire to keep people out of the Land of the Free.
Republicans say they must protect the border to keep the USA safe. They talk about the flow of dangerous drugs, crime and other evils. That all sounds good, but as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich points out, it’s mostly fiction,
On Thursday, she said in a news release issued by the state of South Dakota that she is headed to “the warzone.” She also told Fox News and Republican Party demagogue Sean Hannity — who else? — that she was ready to dispatch the South Dakota National Guard to the border.
“I already have three times…I am willing to send National Guard down there to stand alongside them,” she said. “I want it to be different arrangements this time. If we’re going to enforce Texas law — and if I’m going to have the ability to use these soldiers in a way that’s effective — that will be absolutely fantastic.”
That’s the term she used — “absolutely fantastic.” Sounds like she really enjoys it.
Of course, Victerma de la Sancha Cerros, Yorlei Rubi and Jonathan Agustín Briones de la Sancha remain dead. But they don’t matter, do they, governor?
Roll out the razor wire!
Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets.
