"Anyone truly interested in US-Mexican border issues needs to stay for more than an afternoon," says Judith Zafferini, a Democratic state senator for the Texas border town of Laredo.
Zafferini is referring to a recent campaign appearance by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. The state's Rio Grande Valley region is a historically Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red state, but Trump joined other GOP presidential hopefuls, including Texan senator Ted Cruz and former governor Rick Perry, who have visited Laredo and other towns along the Tex-Mex border.
Border politics generates debate across the United States – so much so that any presidential candidate's campaign would not be complete without a trip to some town or other in southern Texas, New Mexico or Arizona.
Illegal immigration, drug smuggling and gun violence tend to dominate the narratives of most campaign speeches, which some local commentators dismiss as unfair, disproportionate and usually poorly informed.
"They just come down here to get their pictures taken," Zafferini tells The Irish Times. "Real candidates want to address the problems we have on the ground, which, by the way, are the problems most other parts of Texas are faced with, too.
“Illegal immigration numbers are down,” she adds, “and, despite what you might hear, trafficking is not a serious problem right now. But that shouldn’t be the focus anyway. We need a fairer immigration system.”
Cartel involvement
Not everyone is as quick to play down the numbers.
"The role of the Mexican cartel in illegal immigration poses a major dilemma," says Artemio "Temo" Muniz, chairman of the Texas Federation of Hispanic Republicans. "These transnational gangs are bringing huge amounts of drugs into the US, but they have moved into other areas, too.
“Almost everyone who is smuggled across the border comes through cartels,” Muniz says, “and their prices have increased tenfold in recent years. Back in the 1980s, it cost around $300 to get smuggled across. Now it’s closer to $3,000 [€2,700]. People must use their whole life savings.”
Different methods are used to cross the border illegally, he says.
“Some come by train as well as through tunnels. There are also some well-known porous weak spots on the border, where the fence has been torn down. But as the price continues to rise, many Mexicans are being forced to carry drugs with them. Then, once they get to a safe house in Texas, the cartel will ask their families back home for even more money.”
“It’s pretty scary in parts. I consider it similar to New Jersey and the Mob. Within the Mexican community, some consider the cartel as a normal part of one’s upbringing. But we don’t want to see this kind of activity continue to become an everyday part of life here.”
Some presidential hopefuls have called for curtailing illegal immigration through a significant ramping up of border security. Others argue that this shows a poor understanding of the region’s realpolitik.
Porous border
“Unless you build a North Korea-style border, with a massive troop presence and landmines, it’s always going to be porous in parts,” says Mark P Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University in Houston. “Besides, anyone who says all it takes is a big wall doesn’t understand the situation. As the phrase goes, ‘if you build a 10-foot wall on the Texas border, the 12-foot ladder business in Mexico will boom’.
“People will always figure out how to get over, under or around the wall, unless you fully militarise the border, which isn’t feasible.”
“Nobody wants to send down the national guard,” Jones adds. “It sends out the wrong image to potential investors, especially in a region which is already dealing with significant poverty.
"Based on many of the standard indicators – infant mortality, access to plumbing etc – parts of the Texan border rival Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta in terms of poverty. We're seeing the growth of colonias, the US equivalent of Brazilian favelas."
The issues faced in the region are complex and two- sided, but the political rhetoric is all too often narrow in focus.
“The reason drugs, for example, flow so easily from Mexico into the US is demand,” says Zafferini. “If there were no demand, there would be no flow. The other main issue is that drugs may flow north into the US, but money, weapons and ammunition flow south just as quickly.
“What politicians from the rest of the US don’t understand is that this is a truly bi-national place, and it’s too simplistic to see it simply as an ‘us versus them’ scenario. What happens on one side of the Rio Grande River directly affects those on the other side too.”
