Immigration anxiety has Texas mired in the past

EDITOR’S NOTE: America is the land of immigrants, and yet Americans don’t like immigrants. We don’t just have a broken border and a broken system. We have a broken discourse. This series — written by the grandson of a Mexican immigrant who has covered the issue for 30 years — takes a clear, honest and unflinching look at why America’s grand promise to take in the “huddled masses” and “wretched refuse” has been so difficult to keep.

SAN DIEGO — Even as a native Californian, I think of Texas — the birthplace of my mother and oldest daughter — as my second home.

In fact, for five years, North Texas was my actual home. I still have family and friends throughout the state, and so I try to keep an eye on happenings there.

For a journalist, that’s not difficult. The state is catnip. Good stories are more plentiful than Texas bluebonnets.

The economy is strong. The demographics are changing. The politics are chaotic. Each year, thousands of Americans migrate to the nation’s second-largest state, promising to remake it into something different.

Yet the Lone Star State seems out of sorts lately. It’s as if Texas is stuck at the intersection of “Past” and “Future” — unsure of which way to go.

While there have always been times when the Lone Star State seemed walled off from reality, Gov. Greg Abbott now seems ready to make it official by building an actual wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

And I bet you thought that managing U.S. immigration policy was, under the U.S. Constitution, the duty of the federal government. The founding document doesn’t come into play when Republican officials are trying to scare up support from anxious white voters in the runup to 2024.

Before you know it, Texas will be printing its own money and making treaties with NATO.

The Texas border wall drama started on June 16 when Abbott announced a $250 million “down payment” would be added to the state’s disaster fund for the express purpose of building a wall.

This week, Texas’ Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced that the state’s General Land Office had reached an agreement with the Department of Public Safety to start construction on what Abbott is calling “the Texas border wall.”

“Washington continues to ignore the Biden Administration’s border crisis, leaving Texans no choice but to take matters into our own hands,” Bush said in a statement. “Working together, we will secure our border.”

As a longtime admirer of the Bush family, the irony wasn’t lost on me. “P” — as he is known within the familia — is the half-Mexican grandson of a former U.S. president who negotiated a historic trade deal with Mexico, and the nephew of another former U.S. president who tried unsuccessfully to reach an immigration accord with Mexico. The Bushes have always seen Mexico as a partner, rather than a problem.

And now, as a new generation takes the stage, “P” is helping Abbott set back U.S.-Mexico relations a generation or more, all so he can set himself up to run for governor himself when Abbott moves on.

What do you know? The first Latino governor of Texas might just turn out to be a Republican — albeit one that few Latinos will be proud to claim as one of their own.

It seems it’s true what they say: Everything is bigger in Texas, including the paradoxes.

Back at the intersection of “Past” and “Future,” the state — which recently lured Elon Musk and Tesla away from California — has a decision to make: Does it want to be known as a global leader in producing electric cars, or as one of the states that is driving xenophobia in America?

In many areas (economic development, innovation, trade, technology, biomedicine, etc.), Texas is a billboard for the future. It’s full of exciting developments. New people are arriving with new ideas, which are creating new opportunities. Optimism is everywhere.

But when it comes to immigration, Texas is mired in the divisive politics of the past. Republicans are raising the drawbridge, as Abbott threatens to build his border wall and toys with the idea of using state law enforcement officers to police illegal immigration. Pessimism is the order of the day.

And mind you, all this is happening as Texas transitions from red to purple. Is there a connection? You bet there is.

Abbott and Texas Republicans are nervous. They’re going “full nativist” to desperately try to hold on to a past that no longer exists. They seem to think that, if they can hold the line and return white people to their former positions of power and supremacy, they can stay in office a while longer.

The last group of Texans who tried to hold the line against the tide of history met their fate in 1836 at a Spanish mission in what is now downtown San Antonio. Doesn’t anyone remember the Alamo?