Build Walls, Not Levees
September 28th, 2007, 9:04 am · 10 Comments · posted by Joaquin
If you’re a resident of the Rio Grande Valley, ask yourself this question: Would you rather have our federal government invest $125 million to fix our badly outdated levees, or is a better idea to spend over $1 billion to build a border wall?
At the present time, we have a federal government that is more than willing to spend over $1 billion for a border wall to keep Mexican immigrants out, or live under an illusion that it will do such a thing, but has little or no interest in bolstering Valley levees to protect us from catastrophic flooding.
Those of us old enough to remember the natural disaster that was Hurricane Beulah 40 years ago, know what catastrophic flooding can do. We remember how we were cut off from the outside world for days and weeks at a time, and the utter misery that a storm of that magnitude leaves behind in the way of great flooding.
And now four decades later, our region is really in no better shape to deal with a hurricane of the scope of Beulah, or as a recent Houston Chronicle article put it: “No region in Texas stands more at risk from the torments, and torrents, of hurricanes than the borderlands.”
And yet, the best our Congress can do is allocate less than $5 million for the task of rebuilding our levees when best estimates are that it will take $125 million to do the job. That’s a lot money, but it’s a lot less money than $1 billion to build a wall to keep the immigrant bashers happy. It’s also a lot less money than the $42 billion in additional money the Bush administration says it needs to add to the billions already being spent for the war in Iraq.
In the Valley alone, the feds will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build the 70-mile stretch of the border wall it is obligated to put up since our president and Congress passed a law mandating border fence construction. The fed’s eagerness to do so is shown in all of the mapping and surveying and planning they’ve already done to put up the wall along the edges of downtown Brownsville and UTB-TSC, and overlooking baseball fields and neighborhoods.
Wouldn’t it be something if the feds and Congress and the president had as much enthusiasm in mapping, surveying, and sending engineers to go about the urgent work of fixing our levees? For less than 15 percent of what the feds propose to spend on the border wall, we could get our levees fixed, and protect our families and homes from the sort of devastation some of us saw 40 years ago with Beulah.
Sadly, our government is more interested in rebuilding Iraq than in rebuilding New Orleans, or bolstering our levees to save our region from becomng another New Orleans if a category 4 or 5 hurricane were to come our way, as one did in 1967. It is also a federal government more interested in squandering our taxpayer dollars to build a wall of dubious effectiveness over shoring up our levees, the outcome of which is much more certain.
Think of this when you see the border wall going up with the billions of dollars it will take for that construction. The International Boundary and Water Commission estimates that flooding from a major hurricane will top Valley levees so badly and easily that at least a 38-mile vicinity in proximity to McAllen would be filled with floodwaters.
Oh well, at least there will be a wall up to keep the Mexicans out.
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Immigrant Bashers?! Joaquin you musn’t use such harsh language you might offend some weak-stomachs! Haters isn’t working, and racists bothers them enough to respond to the very implication. The border walled up is a heck lot more PROFITABLE for the capitalists movers and shakers. You see, Katrina displaced the sociallly dependant minorities-uh the Black Poverty stricken; and the disabled,the economically disadvantaged (generationally of course) oh and Joaquinito don’t forget the children those chiquillos that depend on the community for protection and love. New Orleans will be all new and IMPROVED and the ones that lost their lives their roots and their homes…will not be able to afford recreating the mere thought of returning! Beulah didn’t wipe us out…but there’s still time..and F.E.M.A is more prepared to rescue us. Thanks to the experience-people will simple be fished out of the levees and buried maybe Nazi mass grave style-because remember; the wall might have some illegals floating around, depending solely on the mercy of our governments consciences- maybe.
diana joe 07
Dear Joaquin:
The proposed wall is not for keeping immigrants out. The proposed wall is for keeping illegal immigrants out. Big difference! Also — the wall doesn’t have to be ‘physical’; it can very well be ‘electronic.’ As such waterways and natural migratory patterns will not be disrupted to the extent a physical wall would impose.
My beautiful wife is from Mexico, but she came here legally; the process was lengthy but well worth it. We both agree that we want the lives of the average Mexican (and elsewhere) to improve. But how will if we continue to stave off potential change by enabling the largest revenue-generator, i.e. ‘illegal labor’, to flourish? The U.S.A. cannot afford to be a surrogate nation ad infinitum. In Phoenix alone several municipal hospitals have closed due to financial strife encumbered by non-paying illegals. This is but a tiny fraction of the economic damage we are suffering yet few politicians will admit it.
Mexico is a beautiful country with natural resources galore. Mexico could be an economic superpower. However, the middle-class is small and the number of elitist is small as well. This is a recipe for oppression. There’s no reason — no good reason I should say — that the average Mexican shouldn’t enjoy a standard of living on par with U.S. citizens. If those super-wealthy would simply unleash the capital resources within their control then free-market forces would take root. In due course the volume of illegal immigrants would decline for the opportunity for gainful employment would be in their own land.
The anger shouldn’t be directed at those who desire to build a wall. No — the anger should be directed towards the ultra-wealthy whose greed and grip on the Mexican economy lack the basic compassion to facilitate the availability of jobs and opportunity in their own land. Again — this is oppression; institutionalize oppression.
A Nation that does not respect the integrity of its borders soon has no Nation. Just ask the Mexican Nationals in Chiapas, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, how they feel about illegal Guatemalans.
May God bless you and your family Joaquin.
Regards,
Jack
[...] John wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf you’re a resident of the Rio Grande Valley, ask yourself this question: Would you rather have our federal government invest $125 million to fix our badly outdated levees, or is a better idea to spend over $1 billion to build a border … [...]
1. It’s not the Feds job to “fix the levees”, it’s the feds job to protect the citizens of the USA. A simple understanding of the Constitution of the United States will inform you of that. If you want the levees fixed, contact your local government. But bother contacting the Brownsville government, they can’t even afford to fix the streets, much less a levy.
2. When the largest group of people in our jails are illegal immigrants, I think any clear thinking person will conclude that we have a problem, no matter how many “good one’s” there are inside the USA.. I realize that it is in the best interest of people like the writer and organizations like La Raza to keep the in-flow of an underclass into the USA so they can keep feeding off the ignorance.
3. You had the super rich white woman Pelosi in Brownsville this week telling “us” exactly what she knew “we” wanted to hear, and according to the paper “we” ate it up! I have some real bad news for you…this white woman does not give two hoots about a mexican, legal or illegal.
I say build the fence…it’s better than giving the money to people who don’t work !
Why is is in my best interest for illegal immigrants to continue to stream into this country? What right-wing nonsense.
The point of this column is what would bring greater value to the RGV: The building of a border wall or fixing our levees. Of course, it’s a federal responsibility to build, fix and maintain levees. Hello, what’s the U.S. Corp of Engineers? What’s the International Boundary and Water Commission?
There are a great many things not in the Constitution that the federal government has taken up responsibility for - be it for better or worse.
Our RGV is essentially a river delta, and very vulnerable to flooding.
Look, I get it. Right-wingers hate Mexico and Mexicans. You can’t help yourselves. I write a column about the need to fix our RGV levees and the right-wing folk get all worked up, spewing out nonesense about how the majority of all U.S. prison inmates are immigrants. Must have picked up that piece of fiction from Rush Limbaugh’s website,or maybe on the website of one of the anti-immigration nut job groups.
I lived through a category 5 storm that hit the Valley 40 years ago. I saw what it did. I don’t want to see us go through something that horrible again.
Joaquin, I agree with you. It is that simple. Right-wingers hate Mexicanos and they will do everything they can to keep us out…be it by a wall or the debate. But we are growing in numbers, in astounding numbers. We just need a man or a woman with the fierce passion and dedication to lead and make it known. Viva la Revolucion!!!
ADELANTE!
QUE VIVA EL RIO BRAVO Y SUS BELLAS FORMAS!
Pancho Villa is a bandit in Columbus,New Mexico,and Christopher Columbus is a bandit on ALL the Native American stories…its time to get a grip fulanitos!
mEXICAS ARE NATIVE TO THESE LANDS no one will ever be able to change the truth..no one.
No matter how far down the historical scrolls one gets to go; “Divide And Conquer” is and always has been a very sensitive subject to discuss, and interestingly enough it is introduced in tribal schools in the (FIRST GRADE)—->right here in the good ol’ USA!
And as one that has her bellybutton planted in Brownsville cir. 1960..My fervent aim has been and remains to reinvent, recreate, and reintroduce,proven facts about our UNITED STATES government to my people(valleyites). Walls have never stopped people from getting information out and about!
Ever been to prison?
Heck even the wardens will get a note from one cell to the next..given the feelings’ right.
PEACE to the people all over the BORDER!
How about this: Build a Border Levee/Wall, Build a really big Levee that will act as a wall also. Ni modo
The USA we the one screaming for the Berlin wall to come down as it was inhuman WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE now they want to build the same