Texas gubernatorial candidate Democrat Beto O’Rourke continued his tactic of denying reality in order to secure votes during a Monday town hall in Rio Grande City, Texas. Answering a supporter’s question about eliminating money being spent on the border to be used for school safety issues, O’Rourke opined that he thought the situation on the southern border “is pretty great right now.”
Mired in a tough race against incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, which according to most polls Abbott comfortably leads, O’Rourke made the comments in a town hall that focused mainly on school safety issues in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting.
“And we all agree that we want the border to be better. In fact, I think the border is pretty great right now,” O’Rourke told supporters. “I’d love to see investments in our communities, protecting our natural heritage, improving the ability to help those who are seeking asylum and trying to do it lawfully and in an orderly fashion, because they literally cannot return to their home countries for fear of being killed, or their children being kidnapped. I want to see us do a better job.”
If “pretty great right now” means approximately 513,000 illegal crossings in a ten-week period between March 1 and May 15, O’Rourke may be on to something. However, if O’Rourke’s version of “great” has anything to do with the rule of law and protecting America’s borders from illegal immigrants, the Texas Democrat might have some explaining to do.
Nevertheless, O’Rourke slammed Abbott’s use of the Texas National Guard to assist in patrolling the border area.
“But involuntarily activating ten thousand of our fellow Texans, with a week’s notice, they were taken from their families, their kids, their jobs, their careers, and sent to the border for a one-year deployment, and these guard members have no constitutional authority to arrest or detain, they can only spot and radio in to CBP, or to local law enforcement,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke conceded that there may be some value to a National Guard call-up — but only if it’s voluntary.
“And there is some value in that, I think a voluntary activation at some small number might make sense, we’ve been doing that in Texas for years,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke mocked the border wall started by President Donald Trump, calling it more of “a public art installation than it is anything else.” O’Rourke also stated that the unfinished wall has “done nothing to stop anybody.”
The funny thing about border walls is that they become useless when people can simply walk around them. But Beto’s no engineer, of course.
Still, the Texas Democrat felt emboldened to skewer the wall and the idea of robust border security as “bumper sticker solutions.”
“But it really speaks to the larger problem that we have in this state and in this country … we’re excited … for bumper sticker solutions like ‘build that wall,’ or ‘deport them all,’ or be incredibly cruel, or do whatever it takes, we just don’t want to have to deal with this problem, instead of addressing the underlying issues.”
O’Rourke also tore into Abbott for using $5 billion of state money to deal with a problem that rightfully belongs to the federal government to attend to. But in Biden’s America, the feds have no interest in protecting the border from intruders.
Abbott, on the other hand, thinks that the border wall abandoned by Democrats is a good idea and announced that Texas will build its very own border wall in December.
“Biden allows open border policies and refuses to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border and enforce immigration laws. Texas is stepping up to do the federal government’s job,” Abbott said.
Speaking on the border crisis, Abbott stated: “While securing the border is the federal government’s responsibility, Texas will not sit idly by as this crisis grows. Texas is responding with the most robust and comprehensive border plan the nation has ever seen.”
It’s a stark choice for governor in Texas. While the present governor, Abbott, at least recognizes that the current Swiss-cheese situation on the border is, in fact, a crisis, his opponent would have citizens believe that the situation is actually “pretty great,” and is only in need of a few tweaks.
