Texas defies federal threat to abandon border area, setting up legal showdown

[moniss]

38. I don't know the lay of the "land"

and shoreline there at that park but if it were me I would be asking the Coast Guard, which does patrol in the Rio Grande, to give me options. I would be for bringing a flotilla of barges, for example, and stationing them so as to be in the river within a few feet of shore for the entire length of the park. Effectively use them to cut off the Texas Guard from access to the river at any point within the length of the park and use those barges as staging and processing platforms for use by the Border Patrol. Then take them to land in another location after processing.

I would also ask my Department Secretaries with authority over federal funding to Texas for projects of any and all things tangential to the rivers, roads etc. to review withholding that funding based on the demonstrated refusal of Texas to comply with federal regulations regarding cooperation. As an additional step I would ask my Secretaries of the various branches of the military to immediately implement plans to restrict all possible enlisted personnel to base. There are 15 military bases in Texas and the spending off base by personnel is a considerable daily amount of business for the surrounding communities. The restriction of personnel would easily cost Texas businesses millions per day and the state of Texas millions in lost sales tax revenue over an extended period of time.

I would ask the military Secretaries to also halt all non-essential construction contractor activity on the bases as well and also restrict civilian employees on the base to only those deemed essential. Those bases generate huge economic impact for the communities and the state and there is no valid reason to continue to have the federal tax dollars flow to a state that refuses to recognize and cooperate with federal authority.

Now having said all of this I know none of it will happen because the feds will take the course of going to the courts for a process to drag on for months and years. Meanwhile the carnage continues. Does anybody in the media even care to try and find out from the Mexican authorities if anybody knows the names of the mother and her two children? Or will it just be on to the next thing and and wait for the next dead bodies? I am tired of seeing pictures of bodies floating up on shore and victims not even shown the humanity of trying to find out who they were so their death at least has the human dignity of using their names.