Weekend Trump Round - We Don't Really Oppose It...

Ambassador Stout loves the jail contract in which the County of El Paso receives revenue from the Trump Administration to execute his policy of separating families. Since its Monday and a normal meeting day for Commissioner’s Court, he’s likely to have yet another do-nothing resolution about the Trump administration’s immigration policies. 

I mean assuming Ambassador Stout actually shows up to work. Real talk - there are two commissioners in bad health and Ambassador Stout is pretty often off galavanting somewhere on the planet - whether its Machu Pichu or the Kentucky Club in Juarez - Ambassador Stout misses a lot of work time to travel, which really impacts the productivity of the Court. 

Anywho...where’s his resolution about the roundup this weekend? 

He doesn’t have one. I’ll tell you why.

Because he’s literally the biggest proponent of the cash the County of El Paso gets for rounding up immigrants. Not only is a big proponent for the contract...and he can’t deny it no matter how badly he wants to spin it...he also wants to program some of the money for his own pet projects. 

But hey, $$$ for every immigrant they caught this weekend, amirite?

And he and people like the Border Network for Human Rights look as hypocritical as they possibly can be by advocating that the immigrants are some how better off in our county jail system. 

Try telling people that to people that were rounded up this weekend! I’m sure that will alleviate their terror. 

Look, I know that Stout isn’t the author of the policy. I know it was around before he even got to the court. But he’s the biggest advocate for the contract now. He defends it more than anyone yet is also the first person to jump in front of a camera to talk about immigration issues in the Trump era.

But I think its time we started calling out elected officials on empty rhetoric. Don’t tell me how you’re against the Trump administration, or author a resolution against it, while you support using county or city resources to support the activities of the administration. 

And yes, I said city as well. Aaron Montes of the El Paso Times took some photos of an ICE arrest over the weekend and there are local PD units on the scene. Its possible that there was some sort of crime that occurred separate and apart from the ICE apprehension, but if there wasn’t, we are now using our city resources to support this policy as well. 

Finally, for those of you reading this…don’t be outraged about the ICE round-ups if you’re okay with our local city and county entities supporting them. Resist means resist. It doesn’t mean resist, unless our local entities are cashing in on it. 

These are families and humans. These are children being torn apart from their families in tears. Not knowing then they are going to see one another again. And then we have the audacity to act like they won the immigration lottery by being locked up by our own local government?

A couple of weeks ago when the last one of Stout's do-nothing resolutions came up before Commissioner's Court, County Commissioner Vince Perez again raised the issue of the court saying they are against Trump's policies in resolutions but in practice, is doing more to support his activities of jailing migrants in a public facility than other other community in the country. 

Here's the one Commissioner on the Court that actually gets this speaking at the Clint facility recently. It was Beto O'Rourke's event but they invited local leaders to attend and he took the opportunity to talk about the policy and the general idea of using the justice system to fix problems. Really listen to what he says about that because he makes a good point and the audience in attendance understood the implications. 

The hypocrisy of this policy has gone too far. Correcting this policy is long overdue. This is something that is fixable. But the only people that have the power to right this wrong, are the members of the Commissioner's Court. 

I for one am tired of empty words of politicians using the immigration issue for attention and doing nothing to stop Trump when they have the power to do so.