Our border problem lies in Washington, not in South Texas

South Texas is experiencing another flood of migrants crossing the Rio Grande, our border with Mexico. Such increases are being driven by US asylum laws, which allow migrants to seek safety once they hit American soil.

The Trump administration attempted to significantly reduce migration through initiatives such as the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42, a policy that blocked entry into the US due to COVID-19. Due to the political changes of the Biden government, a new wave of migrants quickly spiraled out of control, resulting in a massive influx on our southern border. This was a terrible mistake.

The reasons migrants arrive on our southern border are myriad, but in short, violence, political persecution and other threats drive them from their home countries and economic opportunities draw them here.

With every influx of migrants comes political hypocrisy. Elected state and federal officials constantly flock to the border for a brief river tour and press conference on the issues they discovered.

But in reality, the problem isn’t on the southern border – it’s in Washington, DC

Our immigration system is broken. Rather than coming to the border for photo shows and big-time pronouncements, our elected leaders should roll up their sleeves and do real work by speaking to local citizens and business leaders to understand border issues and solutions. And then they should take bipartisan legislative action to address our failed immigration and asylum laws, which are the root cause of many of the border problems.

We must thoroughly modernize US immigration and asylum laws to adequately meet the labor needs of our economy. The truth is, we have a demographic problem, and without immigrants we would not have enough labor to meet our needs in virtually all professions.

During his tenure, Governor Greg Abbott did a lot of good for Texas, particularly economically. But his sudden decision to pick up where former President Donald Trump left off with a border wall – with state dollars – is terribly misguided. We have to pursue more sensible and cheaper border security solutions instead of wasting money on a monument to senselessness. In fact, most people don’t even know that much of the wall built in Texas isn’t even on the border. In some cases, it’s thousands of feet back and is ineffective at stopping migrants who can legally seek asylum once they hit US soil.

The idea that Texas should contribute to a border wall is foolish and ridiculously costly. Border security is a federal task. During the Trump administration, the cost of building the wall was a staggering $ 25 million per mile for a total of nearly $ 11 billion. A wall is not the right security solution for our Texas border, and residents don’t want an ugly wall on their private property to block their view of and access to one of our most valuable border facilities, the Rio Grande.

Instead, we should increase security at our ports of entry to facilitate legal trade and travel. We should work with Mexico to clean up the river by eradicating carrizo cane and salt cedar, invasive, alien plants along the banks that are hindering border guards’ surveillance of the river. And we should use technology to track and respond to border threats. With these improvements, the flow itself can be an effective barrier, at a much lower cost to taxpayers.

We must also immediately reopen the Texas-Mexico border, which will remain closed to “non-essential” visitors, which will destroy the economies of the border communities that rely on Mexican buyers.

Additionally, Congress and the President – not Texas or its governor – need to focus on sensible border security solutions to keep bad people out and make it easier for the right people to enter. If migrants arrive here because of persecution or imminent danger to their lives, the US should provide an adequate sanctuary, but in a fully managed manner.

We need to broaden the path to citizenship, including dreamers and DACA recipients, as well as the ability to work legally. Due to falling birth rates in the United States, the United States needs more immigrant workers of various skills to support a growing economy.

Our border problem is in Washington, not South Texas. Texans, including Abbott, should support solutions that actually work and ditch billion dollar political props like an ineffective border wall.

After all, many cities along the Texas-Mexico border bridge the Rio Grande, such as Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and our border communities are truly a city in two countries. We live, work and play as a community, and it is time that Texas and the US listen to the solutions offered by those of us who call the border home.

Dennis E. Nixon is Chairman and CEO of IBC Bank in Laredo. He wrote this column for the Dallas Morning News.

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