"My grandparents house in El Paso...." echo opinion

Border Wall- Echo opinion letter published in the El Paso Times:

Fortunate to be born in a family with a home on the border

My grandparents’ house in El Paso was right on the border. I spent every summer there as far back as I can remember.

Numerous sports games. Hide and seek. Dart guns. Bicycles. Walking down the street to Tía Celia’s house. That walk seemed like 10 miles. It’s less than a mile.

Looking back, I never remember a wall or fence on the border just beyond the neighbors’ backyards. My mom said when she was a kid, they’d walk along the Rio Grande riverbank and see workers outside, just across the border.

Years later, when I visited, I saw a tall fence along the freeway.

Some people are angered by calls to “build the wall.” It used to anger me. Years back, I thought, “Why do people hate people that look like me and my family?”

Over time, it dawned on me that they simply haven’t had the experiences I’ve had. They don’t have the memories of family, the smell of tortillas on the comál in the morning, the desert heat and the unconditional love of a family that, yes, came across the border in the 1910s to escape death.

Today, I don’t hate people that say, “Build the wall.” I just think, “Wow, you have no idea the richness that could be within your heart, and the absence of it is likely not even your fault.”

Fortunate to be born in a family with a home on the border

My grandparents’ house in El Paso was right on the border. I spent every summer there as far back as I can remember.

Numerous sports games. Hide and seek. Dart guns. Bicycles. Walking down the street to Tía Celia’s house. That walk seemed like 10 miles. It’s less than a mile.

Looking back, I never remember a wall or fence on the border just beyond the neighbors’ backyards. My mom said when she was a kid, they’d walk along the Rio Grande riverbank and see workers outside, just across the border.

Years later, when I visited, I saw a tall fence along the freeway.

Some people are angered by calls to “build the wall.” It used to anger me. Years back, I thought, “Why do people hate people that look like me and my family?”

Over time, it dawned on me that they simply haven’t had the experiences I’ve had. They don’t have the memories of family, the smell of tortillas on the comál in the morning, the desert heat and the unconditional love of a family that, yes, came across the border in the 1910s to escape death.

Today, I don’t hate people that say, “Build the wall.” I just think, “Wow, you have no idea the richness that could be within your heart, and the absence of it is likely not even your fault.”

Marcel Hernandez

Nashville, Tennessee

Emergency is Trumpzism- echo

Ten Republican Senators will likely break with Donald Trump on the declaration of a non-emergency border wall.

We have a national emergency, all right- it's Donald Trump

By Eugene Robinson a columnist for The Washington Post published in the Las Vegas Sun

Our nation's national emergency’s name is Donald Trump, and it is a force of mindless, pointless disruption.

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Donald Trump's crazy pointy border wall - surely there will be impaled immigrants who will undoubtedly try to climb over this evil wall.

Donald Trump's crazy signature is the mark of a weirdly deranged man.

Donald Trump's stupid decision to officially declare a border wall emergency — to pretend to build an un-buildable border wall — is not just an act of constitutional vandalism. It is also an act of cowardice, a way to avoid the wrath of the far-right commentariat.

It is an end-run around Congress and, as such, constitutes a violation of his oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — which gives Congress, not the president, the authority to decide how public money is spent. It does not give Trump the right to fund projects that Congress will not approve. Authoritarian leaders do that sort of thing. The puffed-up wannabe strongman now living in the White House is giving it a try.

Let’s be clear: There is no emergency. Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border peaked in 2000, nearly two decades ago, at more than 1.5 million a year. They declined sharply under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and, in 2017, were at their lowest point since 1971. In 2018, apprehensions ticked up slightly — but still barely climbed above 400,000

There has been an increase in families presenting themselves at legal points of entry to seek asylum — those groups of bedraggled desperate Central Americans that Trump calls “caravans.” 

Under U.S. and international law, these people have right to ask for asylum and have their cases evaluated. Again, they come to legal border crossings to seek admission. Only a literal handful try to navigate the forbidding rural terrain where Trump says he wants to build a wall.

What the administration really needs to do is expand and improve facilities for processing, caring for and, when necessary, housing these asylum seekers. But Trump doesn’t care about doing the right thing, or even the necessary thing. He cares only about being able to claim he is following through on his vicious anti-immigration rhetoric, which brands Mexican would-be migrants as “rapists” and Central Americans as members of the MS-13 street gang.

Trump had two years in which Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate — and could not convince Congress to give him funding for a wall. He decided to make it an issue only after Democrats won the power to say no. The president’s negotiating strategy — pitching tantrums, walking away from the table, venting on Twitter, provoking the longest partial government shutdown in history — was never going to work. You might think he’d have learned something about how Washington works by now, but you would be wrong.

Since there obviously is no legitimate emergency, Trump’s declaration — and the shifting of resources from duly authorized projects to the wall — will surely be challenged in court. It is possible, if not likely, that any actual construction will be held up indefinitely.

Indeed, legal briefs arguing against Trump’s action practically write themselves. An emergency, by definition, is urgent. The 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example, were clearly qualified as a national emergency. But Trump has been talking about issuing an emergency declaration to build the wall for a couple of months. If such action wasn’t necessary in December, some judge will surely ask, then why now?

Money for the wall will have to be taken from other projects, all of which have constituencies in Congress and among the public. Ranchers and others whose land would have to be taken by eminent domain for the wall will be up in arms.

Politically, Trump carelessly put Republican senators in a tough spot. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may have the House pass a resolution of disapproval, which the Senate would be compelled to take up. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his caucus would have to decide whether to support a power grab they know is unwise — or oppose Trump and risk the ire of the GOP base.

One of the most strident Republican criticisms of Obama was that he took executive actions that should have been the purview of Congress. But this action by Trump goes much further and sets a dangerous precedent.

What would keep the next Democratic president from declaring an emergency, in the wake of some mass shooting, and imposing a ban on assault weapons? Is that what McConnell wants as his legacy?

Trump cares only that his base is mollified. And that nobody remembers how Mexico was supposed to foot the bill.

Eugene Robinson is a columnist for The Washington Post.

El Paso Times opinion echo - Trump is not a statesman

Time for statesmanship, not intimidation

Strongly worded opinion letter published in the El Paso Times newspaper:

In the US, the court system interprets the laws when necessary, Congress writes the legislation and the President signs or vetoes the legislation. I'm tired of the way everyone is dancing around the fact that Donald Trump wants to create his own legislation, with no regard to the concept of representative democracy.

Obviously, if Congress caves to his (stupid!) wall demand, he will simply hold America hostage with a government shutdown every time he doesn't get something he wants. This abuse of power is a monarchy, at best, and well on the way to a fascist totalitarian dictatorship, which is not the type of government I learned in school.

I understand the white America feels threatened and scared, although they had no problem invading North America back in the day, killing the previous inhabitants and seizing their land and resources. Although that concept worked well for you back then, it won't address the problems in modern times. Tact and discretion combined with thoughtfulness and understanding are your only viable recourse. Time to learn statesmanship in lieu of your traditional methods: (IMO - Trumpzi!) intimidation and coercion.

Welcome to modern times. Adapt or lay the path for the next species to pick up the mantle of stewardship for the earth and its residents.

Jeremiah Davis, Northeast El Paso Texas

Trump is a political weak leader - a Wisconsin echo opinion

Wisconsin echo - "If Trump won’t engage in genuine political compromise with his political opponents, then he is proven to be a poor American president without any grasp of what relates to the common good"

An opinion letter published in the Lacrosse Tribune news:

We must critically evaluate Donald Trump’s autocratic demand that any proposal to keep the US government opened must contain a $5.7 billion commitment to expand the wall (the border wall) between Mexico and the United States.

Has Donald Trump overstepped his legitimate range of authority with this demand?

We know he believes that his action is fair and rationally based, but is it? We do know that Trump’s scientific acumen is weak, his spelling ability is weak, his respect of the opinion of professional scholars is weak, and his grasp of what the majority of the American people want is weak.

So, we must ask whether Trump has a moral, ethical and legal foundation for his wall-building demand.

History and constitutional law answer this question for us and the answer is “no” -- there is no justification for Trump’s position here; at least this is morally and ethically certain and it is arguable that Trump has no legitimate authority to impose his will on the American people, when there is no Congressional support for such action.

So, I appeal to the American citizenry to openly rebuke Trump for overstepping his realm of authority. If he persists in his vainglorious* misbehavior, he deserves to be expelled from political office. If he won’t engage in genuine political compromise with his political opponents, then he is proven to be a poor American president without any grasp of what relates to the common good.

Which side of this debate are you on?

Jac Bulk, La Crosse, Wisconsin

*excessively proud of oneself

Donald Trump's bizarre policy chaos

As usual and in keeping with his terrible track record of flip-flopping, Donald Trump was video-taped saying he would "own" the cruel government shut down, but ..."...Since then, however, Trump has tried to shift blame onto Democrats."  

VOX.com echo article by Aaron Ruper

In other words, never trust Donald Trump.

Trump’s bizarre Rose Garden news conference shows why he’s impossible to negotiate with because he's unhinged, incoherent, oblivious, and dangerous.

On Friday afternoon, Donald Trump and Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi met at the White House in hopes of working toward a deal to end a "Trump" government shutdown that is now on the verge of stretching into its second week.

Schumer emerged from the meeting and told reporters that Trump had threatened to keep the government shut down for “a very long time — months or even years.” 

A short time later, Trump held a news conference in the Rose Garden that encapsulated all the traits that make him next to impossible to negotiate with.
Trump is detached from reality

Trump has received no money from Congress to build a border wall. While the president wants Americans to believe that the lack of a wall presents a dire national security risk, there is no evidence terrorists are taking advantage of the situation to drive into the country in desolate areas along the border where there are no official ports of entry.

During the news conference, Trump claimed that in California, the government has just finished constructing “new walls, beautiful walls, steels walls.” 

But he added that “we have terrorists coming through the southern border” — his implication being that the only thing stopping them are the segments of the (imaginary) wall that have already been built.

“They drive right through and make a left,” he added, not citing any examples. “Not gonna happen. Not gonna happen.”

Trump claims that in California, the government has just finished building "new walls, beautiful walls, steel walls."

Congress has not appropriated a single cent for him to build "new walls." He's untethered from reality.

At another point, Trump made the extremely dubious claim that “some” previous presidents have told him privately they wish they would’ve built a border wall during their terms.

“This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me and they all know it,” he said. “Some of them have told me that we should have done it.”

Following the recent passing of George H.W. Bush, there are only four ex-presidents still alive — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. It’s hard to imagine any of the Democrats have had recent private conversations with Trump — let alone expressed regret to him that they didn’t build a border wall.

Trump also seems to believe that the same Democrats who steadfastly refuse to give him any money for a border wall care whether he constructs it out of steel or concrete.

“The steel is probably more expensive than the concrete, but I think we’re probably talking about steel because I really feel the other side feels better about that, and I can understand what they’re saying,” Trump said. “It is more expensive.”

Josh Marshall

✔@joshtpm

Trump discusses concrete wall vs steel wall.

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2:11 PM - Jan 4, 2019

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Later, Trump said that “if we do what the Democrats want, all of the border things that we’ll be building will be done right here in the good old USA by steel companies that were practically out of business when I came in to office as president, and now they’re thriving.” (MaineWriter~ this is *&%$#_sh*+@!*)

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been clear that she thinks a border wall is an “immorality” — whether it’s built out of concrete, steel, or something else entirely.

“It has nothing do with politics. The wall, in my view, is an immorality. It is a waste of money. ... It’s a diversionary tactic,” she said during a news conference on Thursday. 

“We are not doing a wall.”

Trump has no grasp on policy

Tariffs are taxes paid by importers on imported goods. So, for instance, the cost of a US-imposed tariff on a Chinese product is paid by the US company purchasing that product from China; it is not paid by the Chinese government.

Yet on more than one occasion during the news conference, Trump claimed that the US has taken in “billions and billions of dollars in tariffs from China.”

Trump’s lack of policy knowledge goes beyond tariffs. 

He repeatedly failed to justify his claim that a trade deal that hasn’t yet been approved by Congress (USMCA, the revised version of NAFTA the Trump administration negotiated with Mexico and Canada) will somehow result in Mexico fulfilling his campaign promise to pay for a border wall.
He also lamented that Apple, which announced lower earnings than expected this week, won’t simply relocate all of its production to the US, despite labor cost factors that make that a virtual impossibility at present.

“Don’t forget this — Apple makes their product in China. I told Tim Cook — who is a friend of mine, who I like a lot — make your product in the United States,” Trump said, referring to Apple’s CEO. “Build those big, beautiful plants that go on for miles, it seems. Build those plants in the US. I like that even better. ... China is the biggest beneficiary of Apple, more than us.”
Trump doesn’t care about optics

During an Oval Office event with Pelosi and Schumer last month, Trump unequivocally said he would own a government shutdown if one happened.

“I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” he said. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.”

Since then, however, Trump has tried to shift blame onto Democrats.

Trump also didn’t seem concerned about the optics of his Cabinet members receiving a $10,000 raise this weekend, as the Washington Post reported Friday, at the same time that thousands of federal workers are furloughed because of the shutdown.

Questioned whether he’d ask Cabinet members to give their raises back until the shutdown is resolved, Trump hemmed and hawed, and suggested without evidence that federal workers support his position.

“Many of those people, maybe even most of those people, that really have not been and will not be getting their money in at this moment, those people in many cases are the biggest fan[s] of what we’re doing,” Trump said.

Trump has authoritarian tendencies

If Democrats don’t ultimately bend to his will, Trump said he may grant himself emergency powers to build the wall without congressional approval.

“I can do it if I want,” Trump said. “We can call a national emergency because of the security of our country, absolutely ... I may do it.”

Trump’s case for declaring such an emergency would be stronger if there was evidence that the lack of a border wall presents a national security risk — but there isn’t. That reality, combined with the fact that Congress hasn’t appropriated money for the wall, indicates Trump would face legal challenges if he goes this route.

“I don’t think that this is a real possibility given the restrictions already in place on how money can and cannot be used,” Todd Harrison a defense budget expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News. “It is against the law to use money for purposes other than it was appropriated without getting prior approval from Congress. I don’t think declaring a national emergency would make a difference in this case, so I don’t think their theory holds much water.”

During the news conference, Trump also indicated he has no qualms about using eminent domain to seize large swaths of land for the wall — a position that puts him at odds with factions of his own party.
“It’s hard to pin the president down on the facts”

During an interview on Thursday, Pelosi explained why she thinks it’s difficult to negotiate with Trump.

“When you’re negotiating with someone, you have to know, you stipulate to some fact,” she said. “It’s hard to do that with the president because he resists science, evidence, data, truth. It’s hard to pin the president down on the facts.”

One thing Trump was clear about during Friday’s news conference is that he wants $5.6 billion for border security as part of a deal to end the shutdown. While he described his meeting with Schumer and Pelosi as “very productive,” he couldn’t cite a single specific breakthrough that resulted from it.

Pelosi, on the other hand, described the meeting as “contentious.”

Circular facts and the Trump logic

"I will build a great wall -- and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me --and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."- Quote by Donald J. Trump.

Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions are filling their circular files to overflowing with lies and finger pointing.  "Russia if you're listening?"  Guess what, Russia?  "Mexico will not pay for the border wall".  

Building a wall, along with, "Russia if you're listening", are the two quotes Donald Trump repeated so many times that it was like hearing a broken old 45rpm record.  Can't you just hear the background quartet echoes "Yes, we'll build that wall.  Russia will hear us...listening, listening" hmmmmm.   

But, now Attorney General Jeff Sessions is singing different tunes. Not only is the Attorney General obstructing justice by stalling investigations about how the Russians interfered in the 2016 election of Donald Trump (where is FBI Director James Comey these days?)- but he's now pretending that Americans have agreed to pay for a Mexico-USA border wall! Donald Trump promised to build a wall to protect immigrants from illegally entering the USA through our southern boundaries- just like they have done for hundreds of years. A border wall is costly and ugly. Besides, the wall will cause eons of good border relations to become problematic. 

The turn around on the "Mexico will pay for it" wall is yet another blatant example of how the Trump cult creates "circular facts". It's as though Donald Trump never said the words he repeatedly quoted. Instead, Sessions is representing the circular facts as being, "Well, of course Americans are going to pay for the border wall." This circular logic makes me dizzy.

So, who will the blinded followers of Donald Trump believe?  

It's classic case of the comedy routine, "Who's on First?".

Will Donald Trump deliver on his pledge to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it?" Orrrr, will Attorney General Jeff Sessions convince Americans that we are responsible for the cost of the stupid wall? This circular logic causes me vertigo. In fact, nobody wants the stupid wall. Frankly, it costs too much money, not to mention the imminent domain involved, and the outcome of such an expensive monstrosity is that it will forever ruin our international friendly relationship with Mexico.  

It's time to build a wall around Donald Trump and his lapdog attorney general, Jeff Sessions. They belong in the same cage.

Unfortunately, the Congress is back in session post the 2017, Easter break, so let the ugly finger pointing begin. Nevertheless, regardless of how the border wall is presented, one fact is 100 percent certain. Mexico will not pay for the wall.

Obviously, Donald Trump lied. In the circular files of Trump lies, his waste basket is now overflowing with rubbish and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is adding to the trash. 

Mexico Catholic Bishops respond

As a Roman Catholic woman I'm calling on Cardinal Dolan and all American Bishops to become engaged in opposing the Donald Trump regime anti-immigrant policies. In fact, Bishops in Mexico already made a statement. I'm disappointed the American Catholic Bishops have been, apparantly, reticent.

The spirited response of Mexico's bishops to Trump's border wall 

US-Mexico border

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 27, 2017 / 05:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of Mexico on Thursday reacted to United States' president Donald Trump's executive order to build a wall on the nations' border by urging a more thoughtful response to legitimate security concerns.

“We express our pain and rejection over the construction of this wall, and we respectfully invite you to reflect more deeply about the ways security, development, growth in employment, and other measures, necessary and just, can be procured without causing further harm to those already suffering, the poorest and most vulnerable,” the Mexican bishops' conference said Jan. 26 in a message titled "Value and Respect for Migrants".

Donald Trump on Jan. 25 ordered a wall to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border. An estimated 650 miles of the 1,900 mile-long U.S.-Mexico border have a wall constructed currently.

The Mexican bishops noted that for more than 20 years, the prelates of “the northern border of Mexico and the southern border of the United States have been working” to achieve “the best care for the faithful that live in the sister countries, properly seen as a single city (from a faith perspective); communities of faith served by two dioceses (such as Matamoros and Brownsville, or Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, for example).” “What pains us foremost is that many people who live out their family relationships, their faith, work or friendships will be shut out even more by this inhuman interference,” they lamented.

The bishops recalled the statement of Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, head of the United States bishops' committee on immigration, that “this action will put immigrant lives needlessly in harm's way. Construction of such a wall will only make migrants, especially vulnerable women and children, more susceptible to traffickers and smugglers. Additionally, the construction of such a wall destabilizes the many vibrant and beautifully interconnected communities that live peacefully along the border.”

The bishops of Mexico said that “we will continue to be close to and support with solidarity so many of our brothers coming from Central and South America, who come in transit through our country to the United States”

The prelates also encouraged Mexico's authorities “in talks and seeking agreements with the United States, to advocate for just ways, which safeguard dignity and respect for persons, regardless of nationality, creed, and above all, appreciating the richness they bring in their quest for better opportunities in life. Each person has an intrinsic and invaluable worth as a child of God.”

The bishops expressed their respect for the right of the U.S. government to have its border respected, but said they do not consider “a rigorous and intense application of the law to be the way to achieve its goals, and that on the contrary these actions create alarm and fear among immigrants, breaking up families without further consideration.”

MaineWriter footnote- Hispanic neighbors are "First Nations" people, IMO, therefore, their precedence deserve priority human rights protections.





The prelates concluded their statement asking Our Lady of Guadalupe to “accompany those in both countries who are responsible for negotiations” and to “bring consolation and provide protection for our brother migrants.”