00:00
So, this is a little,
00:03
it's more on the serious end.
00:06
So basically, 23 migrants actually passed away while
00:13
attempting to cross the border.
00:16
So Texas Governor Greg Abbott,
00:21
I'm gonna go back a bit.
00:23
So there's this intense situation going on between the Biden administration
00:28
and Texas. Governor Greg Abbott.
00:30
three migrants tragically drowned near Shelby Park in Texas.
00:36
a Mexican mother and her two Children,
00:39
Governor Abbott isn't holding back in his efforts to stop illegal crossings
00:44
So he fenced off Shelby Park and a hot spot
00:47
for illegal entries to make things more complicated border patrol
00:53
agents are being denied entry and now the feds are
00:56
turning to the Supreme Court for help.
00:58
I'm not familiar with exactly what's going on.
01:01
So we have a professional here with us.
01:04
She is a senior litigation attorney with the American Immigration Council.
01:08
So Soita Marther, thank you so much for joining us.
01:11
Can you lead us into what exactly is happening over there
01:17
at the border right now.
01:18
So for the most part,
01:19
what we're talking about who we're talking about when we're talking about
01:23
this family, this young mother with her two Children and many
01:26
many other people like her is we're talking about asylum seekers
01:30
people who are fleeing their homes.
01:32
We're hoping to come to the United States in order to seek
01:35
protection. and the background to that is that there are
01:39
many countries in Latin America right now that are experiencing political crises
01:44
devastating violence perpetrated by organized crime,
01:48
economic shocks related to the pandemic and you know,
01:51
also the disastrous effects of climate change.
01:54
And on many of these phenomena,
01:55
many of these, what we call push factors that are
01:59
forcing people to leave their homes.
02:02
The United States has an important role in creating these crises,
02:06
right, historically, in the past and in the present and
02:10
that generally doesn't get acknowledged by politicians in the country,
02:14
but that's super important context.
02:18
what we saw this weekend is kind of the inevitable tragedy that
02:23
results from these really xenophobic based racist policies perpetrated by right now
02:32
in Texas. But that we've also seen,
02:35
you know, kind of proffered up by Republicans in the Senate
02:39
even Democrats in the Senate.
02:41
And unfortunately, by the Biden administration and so a young mother
02:46
and her two small Children died while trying to cross the Rio
02:49
Grande River. And the fact that they were trying to get
02:52
to Eagle Pass tells you that they intended to turn themselves in
02:56
They were not trying to enter the country and hide and
03:00
evade immigration authorities. Their goal was to get to the United
03:04
States find a border patrol agent and most likely tell them we're
03:08
fleeing for our lives.
03:09
We want to seek asylum and protection in the United States.
03:14
And as soon as the United States officials,
03:16
the CV P or customs and border patrol agents learned that there
03:19
was this group of migrants,
03:20
including his family in distress in the river.
03:23
And they learned that from their Mexican counterparts to observe them trying
03:28
they basically show up at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass and they
03:32
demand access. And as you said,
03:37
the, the Texas National Guard,
03:39
the Texas officers said,
03:40
no, not even in emergencies,
03:42
even after they were told by us officers that there were people
03:47
Is there anything that the US government can actually do?
03:51
they're kind of also at fault.
03:53
So it's kind of like,
03:54
but what can they actually do to overpower Texas authority in that
03:57
specific space? It seems like Texas is like not like we're
04:00
not going to let this happen,
04:01
but the government, I would assume has more power over that
04:05
Yeah, I think you've really,
04:06
again kind of captured like the really confusing nature of what's going
04:11
on because anyone who's gone to,
04:13
you know, school in the United States has been taught about
04:15
the federal government, the state government,
04:16
usually the federal government gets to tell the state governments what to
04:20
especially in things like immigration.
04:23
And so there are a number of different court cases right now
04:27
in which Texas and the federal government led by the Biden administration
04:31
are fighting about what Texas Texas is doing.
04:34
And one of them is this ongoing lawsuit that Texas
04:38
actually filed last year against the Biden administration.
04:42
saying that the Federal Court should order the administration to stop
04:47
cutting down the razor wire that Texas had put up along the
04:51
border. And why was the government cutting down Texas's razor wire
04:55
The answer to that is,
04:57
it was essentially an emergency situations.
05:00
Border patrol agents were groups of migrants trapped and they were cutting
05:05
through the razor wire in order to reach them to access them
05:10
and process them and assist them.
05:11
And we're seeing, you know,
05:14
filings as recently as Monday from the Biden administration telling the Supreme
05:19
Court, look, this is what's happening.
05:21
A mother and her two Children are dying and more of this
05:24
is going to happen because Texas is not only doing things like
05:28
erecting razor wire, but they're blocking our access to the park
05:33
we're waiting to see what the Supreme Court does,
05:36
you know, common sense like you say,
05:39
and legal precedent would really seem to indicate that the Biden
05:45
administration should win in this case and should be able to order
05:49
Texas to take down the riser wire,
05:51
which is incredibly harmful and dangerous.
05:56
as you said, the optics really are like they're treating people
05:59
not like they're people,
06:00
but like they're animals.
06:01
And while a lot of these root causes these push factors that
06:05
I mentioned are easily fixable,
06:07
there are solutions, I mean,
06:08
all we can hope for is a step in the right direction
06:11
there are solutions to this.
06:12
But it seems like we again can't figure it out,
06:16
figure out war with each other,
06:18
you know, the government in Texas.
06:19
But so basically Biden is asking the Supreme Court if he can
06:26
cut a fence that the governor of Texas put up to keep
06:31
people out from Mexico.
06:33
Again, the president,
06:34
I need things to be dumbed down for me.
06:36
So basically, corporate like a CEO is telling a store
06:44
manager to like, oh,
06:46
do you know, do something?
06:47
And the store manager is like,
06:48
nah, like I feel like that's like our government in a
06:53
nutshell. Ladies and gentlemen.
06:55
It doesn't make sense.
Series