20181218.0430

On 15 December 2018, Sig Christenson's "Seventy Miles of Razor Wire Later, Some GI’s Pulling back from Border" appeared in the online San Antonio Express-News. The article reports on the current state of the troops deployed to the southern border of the United States to assist in deterring migration into the country, as well as the work done by those troops during their deployment to the Mexican borders of Texas, California, and Arizona. (The lack of troops on the New Mexico border is noted.) Political concerns surrounding the deployment also receive attention. Drawdown of troops has begun, although some troops are expected to remain on site until 31 January 2019, depending on conditions along the border.
The article reads as a quiet condemnation of the troops' deployment; I get the sense as I read that Christenson views the deployment as a waste of time and resources, though that might be my own opinion influencing my reading. (I do view it as a waste and a political stunt meant to distract from other problems by causing problems for men and women who are not in a position to respond, as well as their families.) But reinforcing seventy miles of a much longer border does seem a small effort, in all; I know those in uniform are capable of doing much more than that. And the comments Christenson reports and makes seem to indicate a similar awareness, as well, perhaps, as a rebuke to others who might for some reason--likely not a good one--favor more intensive measures.
Again, I find myself of the opinion that the response to migration coming towards the United States is an overwrought theatrical response to an issue that is, in part, the creation of the United States. And I think that there is a certain amount of anxiety among the mainstream population of the United States about immigration, generally. (I cannot take credit for the idea, though I do not recall anymore where I came across it, for which I apologize. I am happy to cite the source if it is presented to me.) It has been remarked repeatedly and abundantly that the United States is a nation of immigrants, and I have heard no few people comment again and again that "if they'd just come over legally and learn our language" and on and on and on. But I note that the "our" being referred to did not do so. The "our" that emerges from a putative "us" that is almost always meant by such phrasing is a group of colonizers who did not assimilate to local customs and ways of life--and, yes, I am the descendant of such people, benefiting even now from atrocities committed upon those who were here by others who came from far away and refused to adapt themselves to the ways of life already in place. So there is likely somewhere some kind of anxiety that what the mainstream population of the United States collectively did and benefits from will be enacted upon it, in turn.
Given what has been done, and over how long, that it should be feared is not a surprise. And it may perhaps be justice for it to happen again, though the scale and scope of it exceeds me. But it might also be justice for the United States to work to correct the errors it has made, though it does not seem apt to do so anytime soon.