CAFO’s
Border Politics
Huellas
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Friday morning just after sunup at mile marker 122 (north side of I-10), a single adult male with the all too familiar appearance was walking eastward along the two-track ranch road that runs immediately parallel to the freeway.
From deep
in thought of other issues, the phone was pulled and a file search for the number
of the Border Patrol checkpoint at mile marker 116 began. As the first ring was
heard, the call was aborted.
There
won’t be anybody there.
The next
several minutes before the divided entrances to the checkpoint were reached the
predicament of the most current border debacle was considered. The checkpoint
has largely been absent from activity, and, if there was a duty officer, chances
of him being able to go look for the person was probably slim.
Sure
enough, the checkpoint was closed, and traffic control cones made it
essentially impossible to get there anyway.
The thought of calling the dispatch in Las Cruces was considered and then dismissed. Times have changed. Political correctness along with the border state of affairs essentially eliminates any cooperative effort by the individual border citizenry.
For that
matter, we aren’t even sure what to call these cross-border invaders anymore.
The evolution of descriptions continues to emerge. What is set forth in an agency
directive one day seems to change the next.
We will
have to wait to see how a patrol agent describes them if or when we encounter
one.
Huellas
The
throbbing heartbeat of the drought drones on day after day.
That was
the backdrop of the discussion with Pepe later the same morning as we looked at
cattle and contemplated the next four months. The thought has occurred many
times how nice it would be to be able to confine the herd between April 1 and
July 15 and this year only adds to the complexity of things.
If we
did that, though, we’d be considered a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operation) and that would bring a whole new set of agency oversight issues.
That
needed interpretation before Pepe understood. He just shook his head and
signaled the same confusion all of us too often display when these subjects are
discussed.
He
continued the discussion by telling me he had seen huellas mojados the
evening before on the county road running north from the Homestead pens.
Oh,
Pepe, those words aren’t used anymore.
That, too,
needed interpretation before he understood. We both just shook our heads and
signaled the same confusion all of us too often display when that sort of thing
is mentioned. The thought police and the social gestapo are everywhere.
Did the
tracks look like they were carrying a heavy load, though?
No, they
looked like two men and either a woman or a younger man.
Chances
are they were not carrying dope … just getting away from the border.
That’s
just the way it is these days. No use calling anybody. They won’t come anyway.
Border
Politics
The
condescension border citizenry receives from its elected leadership is not new.
Post war
(Mexican American War) Texas was largely abandoned by the United States, and
tragedy and violence on the border continued as a way of life. In large part,
that was half of the equation of the origin of the Texas Rangers.
If the
United States wouldn’t perform their constitutional responsibility and duty of
protecting the sanctity of the states somebody had to do it. So, the Texians
became their own benefactors and capable protectors.
The open
border strife continued through the Civil War and on into the 20th
Century when President Wilson worried openly about his fear Texas would
escalate the risk of America being pulled into WWI if Germans were interdicted
on the border.
The
ultimate responsibility of the border was finally vested with the Border Patrol
(in starts and stops), but the southern international border was always a wild
frontier. If numbers count, recent events suggest it is worse than ever.
Deep
pockets on both sides of the international boundary are doing too well to
return to any semblance of law and order of the previous administration. These
characters don’t want this border closed and they have a willing administration
to influence and to use it for perceived political gain.
According
to Forbes for example, the ten richest Mexicans have increased their holdings
an average of 38.7% (with the kingpin, Carlos Slim, reaching the 55$Bil mark)
for the single COVID year of 2020. Who knows what the cartels are doing, but
according to anecdotal discussions, there is good reason to note that it isn’t just the coyotes who are
hauling heavy backpacks into the United States.
But, come
they will, and come they do.
CAFO’s
It’s all
for the children, right?
The fellow that occupies the White House has his tail in a crack whether he wants to admit it or not. The hypocrisy of these holding facilities becoming complicit diversionary tactics is ghastly. This isn’t a ground swell of compassion, but the documented cross-border net gain of 4 humans per minute during the month of March has certainly become part of the calamity.
Lawlessness
begets lawlessness. Everybody is getting into the act. Try to cross a mule. The
cost of mordida is currently running up to 100% of the sales price willing
sellers are asking in Mexico.
It’s crazy. It’s unbecoming of a
civilized society regardless of the words used to spin the outcome.
One thing is for certain, though. Some
agency is going to have to start ordering some measure of hygiene and
limitation on these new age CAFO’s (Confined Alien Feeding Operations). The
optics just aren’t good. With subjects being confined for 45 days, these
operations are even starting to meet the criteria for tighter controls,
political oversight, public comments, and the criticism of the press.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.
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