While we would normally welcome the first visit to Brownsville by President Biden with excitement and cultural tradition on the first day of the ‘Charro Days’ festival, a binational cultural celebration between Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, we instead are ignored in exchange for a press event, ironically to meet with law enforcement officers about border security, a trope we have lived daily with under the Abbott administration, that makes it a habit to peacock flagrant tax expenditures under shock and awe tactics. But that’s not who we are, President Biden. We do not deserve labels that dub the border in crisis and we have been depending on you to do more to support us in our time of need.
The people of the Rio Grande Valley understand the importance of cross-national friendship and believe that it’s better to greet people on the move with dignity, respect, and even friendship. This is why our rapid response NGOs and advocacy groups have been so successful building partnerships with border cities like Brownsville and McAllen, because we welcome people with dignity. Despite our efforts for righteous good will, despite these visits to the border, despite the photo ops and the press friendly quotes, we remain unimpressed with the Biden Administration’s lackluster commitment to our Texas border communities, especially our immigrant, low-income, mixed status communities.
We ask the President, “How is it possible to wish good will and shared cultural and economic partnerships at the Mexican border if we tacitly allow the state of Texas to terrorize our communities with Operation Lonestar?” While our communities sit with concerns of outrageous racial profiling and penalties for mixed status households, the president is coming here, not to assuage our fears and guarantee his commitment to real border community safety, he instead seeks to discuss passage of a terrible bipartisan bill that will violate international human rights laws for asylum, bring more death, spur further division, demand even more surveillance, and set off cascading systems of carceral violence at our doorsteps.
We don’t need hyper-militarization of our border. We need direct investment into our communities that are still struggling to receive street lights, clean, running water, and are facing the existential threat of climate change. Our communities deserve to be able to access education, nutrition and healthcare without fear. If President Biden seeks to be the public servant that people need, he must take the time to sit down with underserved communities to hear where they stand.
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