I remember the gut wrenching feeling I had after Donald Trump was elected president, I knew my family and I were in real danger of being deported. I remember not wanting to take my mother to Bill Miller’s Bar-B-Q because I was afraid of being harassed at the restaurant.
Deep breaths, that is what I remember doing when Trump lost re-election. But the gut-wrenching feeling never left, because I live in a state of cruelty and extremism under Gov. Greg Abbott — a person who is strategically positioning himself as the new leader of the right-wing base.
Gov. Abbott was behind the passage of SB4 in 2017, the most anti-immigrant bill in the country which obligates local law enforcement to cooperate with immigration authorities and punishes local elected officials for trying to enact policies that could protect immigrants from this pol-ICE collusion.
He has made immigrants and “border security” his favorite punchlines and used his gubernatorial campaign to further polarize our communities and incite violence against immigrants and other communities of color across the state.
Politicizing the mass shootings in El Paso and Uvalde, not pardoning George Floyd, banning schoolbooks that discuss racism, weaponizing the Attorney General’s office to intimidate trans youth and nonprofits that render humanitarian aid to migrants, are just a few of the actions he has done to remind us that he wants to keep white men in power.
His desire for political power is what led him to start Operation Lone Star, an unconstitutional and illegal policing operation that has used up $4 billion of state funds and is projected to get an additional $4 billion this 2023 Texas Legislature.
Let’s look at Operation Lone Star:
Has Operation Lone Star stopped the need for migrants to seek a better life in this country? No.
Has Operation Lone Star stopped the drug trafficking in this state? No.
Has Operation Lone Star made border residents feel safer? No, on the contrary they are being harassed by the thousands of state troopers and National Guard soldiers who have invaded border counties.
Operation Lone Star is just another strategy like Broken Windows Policing, the War on Drugs, which are efforts to create carceral booms under the guise of why we should fear Black and brown people, and their existence in our cities and communities. It’s disgusting, it’s exhausting, and it does not represent all of Texans, or the Texas that I’ve grown up in and love.
I love this state because of its people, not because of its failed state leadership.
In Texas, I have met people in Kinney County (the birthplace of Operation Lone Star) who just want paved roads, better schools and who had a compassionate response when I told them that the cruelty of Title 42 and MPP were forcing migrants to cross outside of ports of entries.
In Texas, I am friends with people in Hidalgo County who just want a better sewage system and streetlights for the colonias. In Texas, I have friends in San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, Austin, and Dallas who just need affordable housing, health insurance, and more public transportation options to be able to live a better life.
In Texas, I have adorable trans and queer friends who teach me to live an unapologetic life. And I feel it deeply that because of them I am proud to say I am undocumented, unafraid, and unashamed. I work with teachers and labor unions who deserve better wages and working conditions because they work tirelessly to keep this state going.
The Texans I know do not deserve Gov. Greg Abbott.
They do not deserve him wasting billions on his border political stunt. We deserve investments that work for everyone and an opportunity to thrive. We deserve the feeling of true safety, not fear of being pulled over by a state trooper because of the way we look or the rainbow or BLM stickers we put on our bumpers. We deserve the feeling that we are going to survive the next winter storm, the next school shooting, the next hurricane, the next emergency C-section.
We deserve so much and we are worthy of it. Gov. Abbott is not my or our Texas, and there is enough of us to make Texas the place we deserve.
