Border Wall Controversy

Border Wall Controversy

My wife and I moved to the border city of Brownsville, Tx, 6 years ago. We are both fluent in Spanish, a necessary skill if one is to be accepted by the local Mexican-American community. I accepted a job as a special education teacher in the local district as a sort of active retirement for a senior citizen.

In my high school, there are several Teach For America teachers who signed up for a 2-year stint at the district. They are mostly the WASP type with impressive college credentials. They also make excellent mentors for their student population, 98% of whom are Mexican-Americans. These imported teachers are also the most active in protesting against the border wall; they urge their students to participate in marches and manifestations against the project.

The Wall (of shame) will split private property, prevent access to a University golf course, affect the migration of endangered species and, of course, provoke international ridicule from both friendly and hostile countries.

Will it stop illegal immigration, drug trafficking, official corruption on both sides of the border, cross-border violence? No, of course not. Those billions would be better spent promoting the education of both poor parents and children in the border area (American and Mexican sides).

To the average American not familiar with life on the border, the Wall may seem like a good idea. Life must be very hard, they imagine, for decent American citizens who are trying to cope with the influx of undocumented immigrants. Are the latter taking away jobs from legal residents? Is violence on the rise? Are we safe in our homes? Can we cross (gasp!) the border into Matamoros (our sister city) without running the risk of kidnapping, rape or murder?

Try telling that to the thousands of winter Texans who regularly flock to our border year after year; they love to drive to Progreso, a small Mexican town close to Brownsville that has the highest percentage of dentists and doctors per capita in the U.S. Well, a root canal on this side will cost you a few thousand dollars; in Mexico, maybe one hundred. Quality of care? The unanimous consent is..better than on the American side. Want to have an excellent meal in Matamoros for half the price, or cheap car repair, or buy fruits and vegetables that will not empty your wallet, or even gasoline nowadays at $ 2.70 a gallon? The border certainly has many advantages and attractions. The Mexican army is there in force to prevent violence, but the local drug lords are the first ones to want peace; killing American citizens is bad for business, of any kind.

So don’t believe the alerts from the State Department; they are written by Washington bureaucrats who never set foot on the border. Life here is much cheaper than inland and I could not survive without my (illegal) gardener, my (illegal) maid, my (illegal) handyman. That’s the way it has been ever since the United States became an independent nation and no border wall is going to change that (so why build it?).