{"id":13151,"date":"2023-08-05T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13151"},"modified":"2023-08-05T17:00:39","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T17:00:39","slug":"when-elected-problem-solvers-become-part-of-the-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13151","title":{"rendered":"When elected problem-solvers become part of the problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fixing immigration and ending hate crimes was hard enough without elected policymakers in Austin and Washington D.C., stoking nativist and racial fears.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Ross Ramsey<\/em>, Texas Tribune<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear that there are more people trying to get across the border between Mexico and Texas, that state officials are concerned about increases in human trafficking there and that the state\u2019s Republican politicians are trying to pin those troubles on the country\u2019s Democratic president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not at all clear that the people of Texas are more at risk of catching COVID-19 from a migrant than from anyone else they run into right now. But it\u2019s become convenient to tag people from other countries as scary carriers of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That rhetorical link between immigrants and disease isn\u2019t a new one, but it\u2019s an insidious one. There\u2019s no evidence to back it. It comes from the same bucket of political swill as Donald Trump\u2019s effort to paint refugees coming through the southern U.S. border as murderers and rapists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>, who earlier this month reversed his own requirements<\/a> for social distancing in public places and mask-wearing, followed that announcement with news conferences on the border and in Dallas, adding fears of spreading the pandemic<\/a> to his concerns about the rising tide of immigrants crossing and trying to cross the state\u2019s southern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no denying the pressures at the border. And there\u2019s also no evidence to label those people coming into the U.S. as COVID-19 spreaders. It\u2019s a dirty trick common to nativist politics, particularly at a time when racial tensions are at a peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political provocations are rising, too. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy<\/a>, R-Austin, reacted to Tuesday\u2019s slayings of six Asian women in Atlanta by deploring the crimes and then adding pain to the grief<\/a> with a reference to lynching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe victims of race-based violence and their families deserve justice, and as the case for what we’re talking about here with the tragedy of what we just saw occur in Atlanta, Georgia,” he said. \u201cI think there’s an old saying in Texas about \u2014 find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. You know we take justice very seriously, and we ought to do that\u2014 round up the bad guys,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words like this make it harder to address the hate crimes that prompted Roy. Adding slights about the coronavirus makes it harder to unwind the almost overwhelming tangle around immigration policy, as it did a year ago<\/a> with the former president and some of his followers labeling the pandemic as a product of China, stirring nativist politics into a public health crisis that needed undivided attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people who are supposed to be solving problems like these are making them harder to solve, creating new problems as they try to burnish their political popularity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats are fretting loudly, but even some Republicans, like Texas GOP Chair Allen West<\/a>, think Roy went over the line. While saying the Democrats were making \u201cmountains out of molehills,\u201d he said, \u201cMy recommendation to Congressman Chip Roy would be to engage the brain before firing the mouth, it would avoid embarrassing situations such as this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all makes former President George W. Bush\u2019s brand of Republican politics seem retro. In an interview<\/a> with The Texas Tribune\u2019s Evan Smith at the opening of this year\u2019s SXSW Online 2021 festival, Bush said he delayed publication of his new book, \u201cOut of Many, One: Portraits of America\u2019s Immigrants,\u201d for fear it would worsen the political differences blocking immigration reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I’d have been a more of a selfish guy, I would have tried to get the book out before Christmas of last year in order to enhance sales,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I wanted to avoid the election season, because one of the problems is immigration has become overly politicized, and it’s really a rebuke of Congress’ inability to come together to get something done on immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, he added, \u201cThere needs to be an overhaul, which means that we need to get politics out of the system and get sober-minded people focusing on A, what’s best for our economy and B, what’s best for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats have criticized some proposed changes to the state\u2019s election laws \u2014 some of which are up for debate in the Texas Legislature on Monday \u2014 saying those would make it harder to vote and would disproportionately affect voters of color. Legislation on police reform and financing, sparked by demonstrations that followed the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police and by other incidents of police violence against Black and Hispanic people, is pending in Austin. And later this year, lawmakers will redraw political lines for the state Legislature and the congressional delegation \u2014 an issue that turns on demographic data and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those debates would be tough in any political environment. Fanning racial, ethnic and national differences has derailed immigration reform for more than a decade. It might work for campaigns, but it\u2019s a lousy way to govern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Ross Ramsey<\/a><\/strong> is executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans \u2014 and engages with them \u2014 about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fixing immigration and ending hate crimes was hard enough without elected policymakers in Austin and Washington D.C., stoking nativist and racial fears. by Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune It’s clear that there are more people trying […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[80,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-13151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-immigration","9":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13152,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13151\/revisions\/13152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}