The Texas Razor Wire Is A Lot More Than Just Razor Wire
I thought, 'Let them use it,' and then it dawned on me: Razor wire is used for prisons and concentration camps - two things right-wing politics love!
The United States is big. We have a lot of land, and there is plenty of space for many people to join us still. Living conditions in many of the countries from which so many flock to the United States are so bad that people willingly risk not their own lives but the lives of their children.
Living in a hot camp or crowded city tenement does not scare them off in the least. This is often where the problem arises. So many of the surging waves of immigrants end up in the same communities that it genuinely creates a sense of the country being overrun. Add to this the inconvenient fact that our nation’s border states to the South, except for California, are all red. This volatile twist of geographic fate really makes the whole immigration issue a lot more toxic than maybe it has to be.
Nonetheless, I agree that the nation cannot just let people stream endlessly into the country. There must be a way to slow the flow — stopping is unrealistic and should not be anyone’s goal. We need immigration. Our economy needs immigration. When I heard about the razor-wire scandal brewing, I struggled at first to understand why using something to stop someone from entering illegally was bad.
I researched razor wire and learned about the nasty cuts caused by the little blades. It seems that immigrants slide underneath the wire, getting cut up, and then when they are later caught, some are in dire need of medical attention. It’s inhumane, to say the least, but I wasn’t ready to blame conservative politics for the choice to use razor wire.
Then I thought about the other main uses of razor wire. I recall seeing it at the concentration camp, Dachau, outside Munich, Germany. It was very popular for keeping the concentration camp inmates inside. It was also used in the Warsaw Ghetto. Razor wire is used atop the fences in prisons.
Republicans don’t want the immigration problem to be resolved. They don’t want a bipartisan plan to slow the flow. President Biden requested funding to hire 6,000 border agents and over 300 judges to help slow the flow. When immigrants are caught, they are released and told to come for their asylum court dates. Most people get rejected and are then deported. Because of the lack of personnel to process the asylum seekers, it can now take up to three years before someone gets denied. The new hires could have reduced that three-year wait to less than one. Republicans don’t want that.
Republicans love the endless flow of immigrants to the U.S. because it acts like yeast in their extremism-starter. Add some surging and flowing illegal immigrants, some razor wire, and thousands of troops patrolling with guns, and Republicans get the kind of imagery that makes any potential fascist feel empowered and safe.
I now get why we can’t let Texas put up razor wire. Because razor wire is popular at concentration camps and prisons, we can’t permit America’s fascists the right to use this imagery in the name of our country.
If you want to slow the flow, then stop the bullshit. Stop playing Trump’s games, fascists.