President Elect Barack Obama's inbox is filling up quick with pressing matters that demand his most urgent attention. I HOPE he realizes that El Paso should be near the top of his agenda. Upon taking the Oath,the Sun City should be given fair consideration for the President's attention. The EP Borderplex features Fort Bliss (national security and defense), five international ports of entry (immigration and national security), a significant bi-national population (globalization), and is a gateway between North and South America and the Eastern and Western United States (trade and commerce). Well I'd say those are some pretty important issues for a new president to take on, and they all can be addressed in the 915 area code!
I do not like the sight of a chain-linked, barb-wired, video-monitored, motion-detecting, automatic-weapon carrying border agent patrolled, militarized, type of border im my hometown. Where do we live? North Korea? No! Would President Elect Obama, a former Constitutional Law professor at the Univerersity of Chicago, care to explain to the citizens of El Paso how Secretary of Homeland Security Mike Chertoff was allowed to bypass over forty federal laws in order to construct the border wall. How will Prez Elect Obama frame his response in regards to human rights?
The border wall as a national security defense is also part of a larger plan to combat the trafficking of Narcotics into the U.S. and to prevent the infiltration of the cartels into the communities across the border. Tight security and strict regulations await all crossers at the international bridges entering the U.S. So does Mr. Obama feel that this is the most effective way to keep terrorists out and drugs off the streets? How does he feel, as a former civil rights attorney, about the wall running through the farms, backyards, and private property of citizens? What about the amount of tax money being spent on incarcerating and housing the criminals convicted of only minor drug charges, not distributing or the intent to. Is it actually a good sign when the amount of seizures at the bridge go up? or does that only mean that the amount of drugs being smuggled has gone up?
There are many, many more questions that await President Elect Obama. Are we violating Pakistan's national sovreignty going after the Taliban? What about the prosecution of Somalese and Indonesian pirates in the Indian Ocean? or what about El Paso, Texas? Across from Juarez, Mexico the city is suffering the consequences of living side by side with a community run over by real terrorists, drug cartels whose corruption has permeated throught the streets and even into the ranks of the local law enforcement. Certainly, each day in this world brings its complexities and challenges. Well, the World awaits Mr. President Elect, and so does El Paso.
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