LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kudos to Abbott
Regarding “Abbott’s razor wire is maiming migrants. Cruelty is the point. (Editorial),” (July 18): The Houston Chronicle knew full well that they were going to incite certain people when they published the front-page story about Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest last-ditch effort to protect our country from lawbreakers by installing the razor wire in the Rio Grande. They knew it would provoke some soft, bleeding hearts who cannot put the country first in their little minds.
If the federal government will not do what they should do, we are lucky to have a brave and heroic governor take over and try to do something to protect the country from such lawbreakers.
Way to go, governor.
Audrey Schambon, Houston
What is wrong with you people that you believe everything that is being told to you about the border? The leftist Democrats who tout an open borders policy want you to believe that it is the state of Texas’ fault that people are being pushed back into the river and denied water. Let’s get one thing straight: Joe Biden created this problem. Do you think he is concerned about razor wire gash wounds, pregnant women swimming in the river, babies with heat stroke? Has he addressed any of these issues? Has he gone to the border to see the unraveling chaos for himself ? The answer is a resounding no. His policies are destroying our country, bit by bit, and he is starting with our borders.
If you want to come to America, there is a legal path. No one likes a line jumper.
Patti Miller, Houston
A country without borders is not a country. Jus’ sayin’.
Robert Anderson, The Woodlands
Regarding “Have we lost our soul as Texans and as Americans? (Opinion),” (July 21): When I read the letters from readers, I was amazed that all but one (from Linda Taylor) apparently see nothing wrong with a wide-open border (compliments of Joe Biden) through which millions have already crossed illegally.
What about the rights of the American citizens? Don’t they count? Why should the citizens be forced to, now and in the future, potentially pay for the costs of their health care, education, social welfare, or crime and incarceration? What has happened to the rule of law in this country that so many people are willing to just ignore it? Are all these other writers saying our national security and economic well-being don’t count?
Eric Johnson, Houston
Cruelty is the point
Bless the Houston Chronicle for its unvarnished editorial about Abbott’s border policy.
The editorial is a history lesson about barbed wire, but more importantly, it speaks to the lack of a moral compass in politicians such as Abbott. The cruelty is the point of Abbott’s plan, and the use of inhumane practices against migrants is a way of saying the quiet part out loud. Thank heavens for the DPS paramedic and trooper who sounded the alarm.
What makes all this even worse is that Republican politicians don’t seem to want to repair our broken immigration system. That would require them to be credible partners willing to collaborate with the other side to fix or at least significantly improve our immigration system. This would require them to be truthful, serious people.
The Republican Party is not going to fix itself. It has gone too far down the rabbit hole. Each one of us who knows better must show courage and do our part to fight the madness.
Linda Phenix, Houston
Kudos to your staunch objection to Abbott’s use of brutality. Compassion to fellow humans should supplant maliciousness in dealing with migrants and asylum-seekers.
Abbott should pound his razor wire (swords) into plowshares for reasons beyond basic (biblical) human rights. International law prohibits use of cruelty as a deterrent for asylum-seekers.
The principle of non-refoulement is fundamental to international refugee law. Family separation, inadequate refugee housing and buses that take migrants to unfamiliar destinations are indeed heartless deterrents.
Abbott’s use of “devil’s rope” goes beyond inhuman. It violates the United Nations’ 1951 Status of Refugees protocol.
John Rezentes, Houston
Regarding “Kamala Harris blasts Gov. Greg Abbott’s border actions as ‘un-American’,” (July 24): Thank God we have Vice President Kamala Harris using her platform to blast Abbott.
Abbott seems to want to be the most un-American, un-Christian, inhumane governor in the nation. His reply to all this is to make a snooty statement about Biden.
Abbott has been one of the contributors to the “border crisis” since 2008 and seems to take perverse pleasure in it.
How does state law allow him to waste billions of state money for what is essentially a presidential campaign?
Steve Howell, Katy
Regarding “Justice Department sues Gov. Abbott after he refuses to remove buoys from Rio Grande,” (July 24): Thank goodness the Justice Department has intervened to fight Abbott’s implementation of buoys, razor wire and other medieval torture techniques at the border.
One would think that a man who served as attorney general of Texas for more than a decade would at least make the effort to familiarize himself with the federal Rivers and Harbors Act. However, Abbott seems much more focused on grandstanding for Fox News coverage and courting favor of the hard right than following the law.
I, for one, am sick of having my tax dollars squandered on boondoggles such as Abbott’s failed Operation Lone Star, the main aim of which seems to be to build Abbott a national profile among conservatives for a future presidential bid.
A recent headline on a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal aptly summarized the net effect of Operation Lone Star: “Texas Spent Billions on Border Security. It’s Not Working.”
Andrew Edmonson, Houston