Frickin On The Border

I used the concept of sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads in a cartoon last July when Texas Governor Greg Abbott first placed water barriers and razor wire along the Rio Grande. This cartoon is its sequel. If a governor was Dr. Evil, it would be Greg Abbott except Dr. Evil was funny (why must I be surrounded by frickin’ idiots?).

Last October, Border Patrol agents cut some of the razor wire which led to Texas crying foul and to sue the federal government, arguing the Department of Homeland Security destroyed the state’s property and interfered in Texas’ border security efforts. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where on Monday, it ruled in a 5-4 decision that Texas must allow federal agents acces to the border and to remove the razor wire.

Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined the liberals to make the majority ruling, meaning it was bipartisan. The dissents were all conservative. The justices didn’t explain their ruling but it upholds longstanding court rulings that the Constitution gives the federal government sole responsibility for border security.

President Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act, designed to modernize our immigration system, has been languishing in Congress since 2021. Republicans are sitting on this while screaming that Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are ignoring the border, and claiming it’s an “open border” under “invasion.”

The border is not open. If it was, then people wouldn’t be drowning after becoming entangled in Texas’ razor wire trying to enter this country. Immigrants coming here is not an invasion. When the word “invasion” is used, it sends the message that the “invaders” are coming to conquer us. But many of these people are women and children looking for a better life, not to harm us or steal our land. Donald Trump claims without evidence the immigrants have been recently released from prisons and mental institutions. When he was a candidate, he lied and said Mexico was sending us “rapists” and “murderers.” When he was president (sic), he claimed the “migrant caravans” were funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros.

A spokesgoon for Abbott said, “The Biden Administration has repeatedly cut wire that Texas installed to stop illegal crossings, opening the floodgates to illegal immigrants. The absence of razor wire and other deterrence strategies encourages migrants to make unsafe and illegal crossings between ports of entry, while making the job of Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers more dangerous and difficult. This case is ongoing, and Governor Abbott will continue fighting to defend Texas’ property and its constitutional authority to secure the border.”

A statement from the White House said, “Texas’ political stunts, like placing razor wire near the border, simply make it harder and more dangerous for frontline personnel to do their jobs. Ultimately, we need adequate resources and policy changes to address our broken immigration system. That is why on his first day in office President Biden presented Congress with a comprehensive immigration reform plan and that is why he is working to find a bipartisan agreement with Congress that includes additional resources and meaningful policy reforms.”

The Abbott administration placing barbed wire and water barriers in the Rio Grande is a political stunt, just like his “deporting” migrants to blue states and cities. It’s a policy of cruelty designed to appeal to the hate base. It was the federal government cutting the wire to assist tangled migrants that upset Abbott, proving his cruelty.

Three immigrants, a mother and two children, drowned in the Rio Grande after Texas authorities blocked Border Patrol agents from the river at Eagle Pass. A video captured Texas National guard soldiers ignoring a female migrant in the Rio Grande screaming for help.

Since enacting Operation Lone Star, Abbott has deployed state troopers across the 1,200 mile Texas-Mexico border, ordered state police to arrest migrants who are suspected of trespassing (or any brown person suspected of being undocumented), spent $11 million to install 70,000 rolls of razor wire along the Rio Grande, spent $1.5 billion on about a dozen miles of border walls, and has spent over $89 million to bus migrants to Democratic-run cities like New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

Texas’ corrupt and philandering Attorney General who recently survived an impeachment attempt, Ken Paxton, said, “The Supreme Court’s temporary order allows Biden to continue his illegal effort to aid the foreign invasion of America. The destruction of Texas’ border barriers will not help enforce the law or keep American citizens safe. This fight is not over, and I look forward to defending our state’s sovereignty.”

That’s a lot of bullshit to pack in. Biden is NOT aiding an “illegal” effort to “invade” America. Fun fact, the people entering America are coming from America. All of North and South America is America. It’s pretty obnoxious for people like Ken Paxton to imply that we’re the only or real America. Also, The 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” That means states don’t have total sovereignty.

Also, The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States (Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the “supreme Law of the Land”, and thus take priority over any conflicting state laws. Ken Paxton needs to zip his pants and read that.

Another fun fact is the majority of Texas bullshit doesn’t come from cattle, but from its attorney general, but he has close competition with the state’s governor and one its senators (the icky one).

The federal government has full authority of its borders. Texas is big, but a lot of its assholes, like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton, believe it’s larger than it actually is.

The people entering our nation from other parts of America are less dangerous to the United States than the Republicans and MAGAts who are already here. As we’ve seen from Jan. 6, the great threat to this nation comes from within, and they wear red hats.

Creative note: The sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads is from the Austin Powers films. Since it’s been over 20 years since the last film in the series, a lot of people don’t know this.

Another creative note: Sharks are built like torpedoes. Their bodies are straight, so I was wondering how to draw them with their heads tilted down while their bodies were straight up, so I looked at images of the shark from the movie The Bad Guys to see how they did it. It didn’t help which is OK because I hate that movie, especially because of the shark. I can get past the shark talking and breathing out of water, but I can’t get past the shark having legs.

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