Close to Home: Fixing the mess on the US-Mexico border

I recently joined six of my colleagues to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. Since I have served in public office, I have been to the border a number of times — it was a mess before, and it is a mess now. It’s clear that we need to reform our broken immigration system and provide the resources necessary to keep our border safe.

Ports of entry along the southern border are critical to our national economy and the economy of border states, including California. The 44 active ports of entry along our southern border generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity every year, and millions of jobs depend on trade between the United States and Mexico.

The situation along the border is much more complicated than some try to make it out to be. Drugs continue to be a problem. The overwhelming majority are coming through the ports of entry. We have a drug problem in our country, and as long as there are consumers, there will be those looking to fill the orders.

With new technology, we are able to detect some, including one car I saw on this trip that was rigged to store drugs in its rear quarter panels. On a previous trip to the border, I saw machinery that was built in Mexico and shipped to the United States with the cavities filled with drugs.

Although it gets little attention, our northern border is a problem as well. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Washington, was with me in El Paso and pointed out that nearly 560,000 fentanyl pills were seized in 2022 near the Canadian border. This was an increase over previous years. Detection methods are better now and improve every year, and we need to continue our efforts to provide the Border Patrol with the equipment they need.

The men and women of the Border Patrol are working overtime to address the situation at the border and are committed to the safety and security of our country. However, from what I have seen, they are doing a lot of jobs that should not fall under their responsibility and distract from their primary job. These include administrative work, management of migrants, supervision of food and laundry services and screening those applying for amnesty. Their focus should be working to keep the border safe and stopping those bad actors who attempt to enter illegally or smuggle illegal items into our country.

I support Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar’s efforts to create Humanitarian Processing Centers to help ease the burden on Border Patrol, reform our immigration system, and secure our border without sacrificing our humanity. This has to be done and will free up Border Patrol personnel to guard the border.

On this trip, I met with Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz, the Chamber of Commerce, law enforcement and elected officials — all are very concerned about the politization of the immigration issue by the state of Texas, saying it makes their job harder. I saw the border wall and heard from Border Patrol officers how coyotes cut through the wall with torches to create passageways. The metal posts of the wall were supposed to be filled with concrete, but the contractor never added the cement.

The situation is tenuous, but the overwhelming majority of television coverage of the border is people who are legally seeking asylum. This migration stems from problems that are intolerable in the countries from which they are running away. Imagine how difficult it is to traverse nearly impassable jungles and cover hundreds if not thousands of miles because conditions in your home country are so bad that you worry for the lives and safety of your children.

To put it simply, the situation at the border is complicated. We have a lot of work to do, but if the border continues to be used as a political weapon, we’ll get nowhere. I am working in Congress to expedite immigration for those seeking legal migration. That includes making it easier for U.S. veterans who are immigrants to receive citizenship, creating a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers,” facilitating legal status for farmworkers and modernizing our immigration system to be fairer, faster and just for all seeking the promise of the American dream and to provide the Border Patrol with the resources they need to do their job. These are tangible steps, and they are a good beginning to a stronger border and a more equitable future.

Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, represents the 4th Congressional District.

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