If the desert does not dissuade migrants, what will?

benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Migration


Fig. 1. Photograph credited to “ProtoplasmaKid,”, November 9, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

I hate paying attention to this issue. But today, what we’re seeing is not merely callous disregard for migrant lives but, I believe, actual homicidal intent.

I have explained repeatedly that when people are undertaking desperately dangerous journeys, desperately fleeing their homes, the U.S. habit of putting obstacles in their way only increases the number who will die. These obstacles do not address the “push factors” that compel people to migrate.[1] There’s nothing radical here. It’s straightforward logical sense. And anyone who lives in those regions knows you have to be pretty damned desperate to cross these deserts. So yes, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott puts concertina wire in the Rio Grande River,[2] he is knowingly and willfully endangering human lives. This is top-end for culpability in negligence cases,[3] but with the animus that white Christian nationalism so consistently expresses toward migrants, I see criminal intent.

With 25 (all Republican) out of 50 state governors backing Abbott, who has promised to add more concertina wire to the Rio Grande,[4] I’m hearing a lot of talk of civil war. My reading of Abbott is that he’s much too chickenshit to actually try to secede. But it’ll be interesting to see how close to that he gets.

Additional questions: What happens if and when Joe Biden federalizes the Texas National Guard? Will the latter in fact take orders from the former? Will they resist and, if so, how violently?

Of course, the inevitable horse race question: How will all this affect Joe Biden’s re-election chances?

In the meantime, Texas is asserting property rights over the concertina wire it has placed in the Rio Grande River.[5]

Arelis R. Hernández, “Texas border city on edge as Gov. Abbott dials up battle with Biden,” Washington Post, January 30, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/eagle-pass-texas-standoff-border-biden/

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Century III Mall


Fig. 2. “The exterior of the closed Century III Mall taken from a drone . . . in West Mifflin.” Photograph by Benjamin B. Braun, May 11, 2023, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,[6] fair use.

The hope is that by seizing the property, West Mifflin can demolish the buildings and then sell the property to defray the cost it otherwise can’t afford.[7]

Justin Vellucci, “DA files criminal charges against Century III, calls former mall a ‘monument to blight,’” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 30, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/da-files-criminal-charges-against-century-iii-calls-former-mall-monument-to-blight/

Infrastructure


Fig. 3. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Yeah, there’s been rain in Pittsburgh lately. Washed all but the larger heaps of snow left by the plows away and, um, funny how this works, ultimately into the rivers. So all of a sudden I’m seeing messages on electronic message boards warning that the 10th Street Bypass, which runs pretty close to Allegheny River level,[8] was closed.

I was thinking, oh fuck, they must be doing more work on the Three Sisters bridges (the 10th Street Bypass runs under them). Then I noticed that the Monongahela Wharf (a parking lot) was also closed. And I started to wonder. . . .

Julia Felton, “10th Street Bypass reopens after flooding in Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 30, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/10th-street-bypass-reopens-after-flooding-in-pittsburgh/

Housing


Fig. 1. Once upon a time this was a Whole Foods Market. The store is part of a complex that replaced the Penn Plaza Apartments.[9] Whole Foods has now relocated to a larger location a few blocks away. Photograph by author, August 23, 2023.

Mark Belko, “‘A higher standard:’ Affordable housing developer acquires Downtown Pittsburgh apartment building,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 31, 2024, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2024/01/31/midtown-towers-downtown-pittsburgh-apartment-affordable-housing-tredway/stories/202401310054

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[10] fair use.

The entire defense of ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden rests on “the other guy is worse” and a claim that there are bigger issues than war crimes. And that’s precisely the problem: Biden’s defenders devalue Palestinian lives. Other things are more important, they insist.[11]

Rory Jones and Dov Lieber, “​Netanyahu Puts Political Survival Ahead of Tough Decisions on Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, January 31, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-puts-political-survival-ahead-of-tough-decisions-on-gaza-783cb8e6

Ed Pilkington, “Pro-Palestinian protests hound Biden, casting shadow on his re-election effort,” Guardian, January 31, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/biden-pro-palestine-protest-israel

  1. [1]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
  2. [2]Sam Cabral, “25 Republican governors back Texas in escalating border standoff with US government,” British Broadcasting Corporation, January 25, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68101927; Ann E. Marimow and Nick Miroff, “Supreme Court clears way for border agents to remove Texas wire barrier,&rdquqo; Washington Post, January 22, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/22/supreme-court-texas-biden-border-razor-wire/↩
  3. [3]Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004).↩
  4. [4]Sam Cabral, “25 Republican governors back Texas in escalating border standoff with US government,” British Broadcasting Corporation, January 25, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68101927↩
  5. [5]Arelis R. Hernández, “Texas border city on edge as Gov. Abbott dials up battle with Biden,” Washington Post, January 30, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/01/30/eagle-pass-texas-standoff-border-biden/↩
  6. [6]Neena Hagen, “The fall of the Century: Once a retail shopping jewel, the West Mifflin mall has been left to rot,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 21, 2023, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/05/21/centuryiii-west-mifflin-mall-slag-heap-kaufmanns-sears-police-closed-crime/stories/202305210039↩
  7. [7]Justin Vellucci, “DA files criminal charges against Century III, calls former mall a ‘monument to blight,’” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 30, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/da-files-criminal-charges-against-century-iii-calls-former-mall-monument-to-blight/↩
  8. [8]This is as in I can look out my side window—understand, I’m not looking down—and see the river pretty much at the same level I am.↩
  9. [9]Bob Bauder, “Pittsburgh settles court battle over Penn Plaza Apartments,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 27, 2017, https://archive.triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/pittsburgh-settles-court-battle-over-penn-plaza-apartments/↩
  10. [10]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
  11. [11]Ed Pilkington, “Pro-Palestinian protests hound Biden, casting shadow on his re-election effort,” Guardian, January 31, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/biden-pro-palestine-protest-israel↩

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