Tag Archives: bailouts

Jake Bleiberg and Acacia Coronado at the Associated Press provided a good report on the lockdown fatigue in Uvalde caused by bailouts from the Border Patrol’s and other agencies’ migrant chases.

The new findings that a culture of lockdowns in Uvalde played some role in the failures on May 24 reflects how one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history intersected with immigration policies and thousands of Border Patrol agents, National Guard members and state police assigned to apprehend migrants and stop drug traffickers. Of the nearly 400 law enforcement officers at the scene of Robb Elementary, more than half were Border Patrol agents or state police, according to the report.

As I stated early on, the Facebook rumor mill in Uvalde was blaming migrant bailouts for the school shooting initially, some even saying they got the information from “inside sources” in a law enforcement agency.

Even the first officers on scene at Robb Elementary wondered whether the threat was a so-called “bailout” — the term used by law enforcement along the border to describe suspected migrants or drug traffickers who have fled. Pete Arrendondo, the embattled Uvalde school police chief who has become the target of angry demands by parents to resign or be fired, told the House committee the thought crossed his mind since it happens so often.

For all the fear-mongering by Greg Abbott and his Republican cohorts, the report stated this fact:

The committee report said there had been no incidents of “bailout-related” violence on Uvalde school campuses before the shooting. 

Migrants are escaping poverty and violence in their home countries; why on earth would they be violent toward children? Or anyone? They’re tired, hot, thirsty, and hungry and just want to make it to safe haven. Even one of the local JPs knows this.

Diaz, the Uvalde justice of the peace, serves as a magistrate when police make arrests in the area as part of the governor’s massive border mobilization known as Operation Lone Star. He sets bail for people taken into custody for alleged human or drug smuggling, but also for crimes unrelated to national security, like minor drug charges.

He said Abbott’s operation hasn’t made Uvalde safer.

“These people who are coming through don’t want to be in Uvalde,” said Diaz. “They are looking to get away from the border and we’re too close.”

For those who say ignorant things like, “they should come to the US the right way,” a reminder that there hasn’t been a right way in decades. The “line” to get in has been non-existent, unless it’s from a favored country the US is trying to save from a government they don’t like (Cuba, Venezuela). While some are escaping US-supported right-wing governments in Central America, others are simply wanting a better life. And they have waited long enough that they will make a deadly and dangerous trek to the US. Not to save their assets, as those in some of the favored countries, but to save themselves.

As far as Uvalde goes, and the rest of South Texas for that matter, these migrant chases are dangerous, sometimes deadly, and clog up and waste needed resources. Whether it is money that can be better spent on economic development, education, or health care, the money thrown at a problem that the Biden administration has failed to improve (citizenship and deportation reform) and that Greg Abbott has created for photo ops and political mud to throw has been ineffective and wasteful. And it’s our money. And these policies are part of the problem of children being killed in a classroom.