Controversy: Texas governor talks about 'shooting' migrants at the border

Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, mentioned this Thursday that his state has done everything possible to stop the increase in migrants that come from the border between the United States and Mexico.

“We are deploying all the tools and strategies we can. The only thing we're not doing is shooting people crossing the borderbecause, of course, the Biden Government would accuse us of murder,” were one of the phrases that Governor Abbott said in an interview with Dana Loesch, a conservative radio host and commentator, according to information from CNN.

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The municipal president of Ciudad Juárez, one of the epicenters of the migration crisis, Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, He called Governor Greg Abbott “anti-Mexican” for his “absurd” and “propaganda” policiesin reference to the closures of border crossings for an alleged fight against irregular migration and which seriously affected trade between Mexico and the United States.

“The closure created a problem and the business community reacted very quickly, seriously. A lot of merchandise stopped.

What was perishable, for example. The truth is that it was absurd. (Abbott) He started looking for migrants in the trailers, an act of propaganda,” Cuéllar said in an interview with EFE.in the headquarters of the municipal presidency of Ciudad Juárez, a few meters from the border with the United States.

“And he didn't find a single one. We have an immigration problem, without a doubt, there is illegal human trafficking, but no company is going to risk it like that. It affected the economy, the Government of Washington intervened as well as that of Mexico.

Fortunately, it was short-lived. And I think because Abbott realized that it was going to generate a political cost for him, because Texas is an economic giant,” he said. Although Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, Mexico) and El Paso (Texas, USA) are two different cities separated by the border wall, the truth is that culturally it is a uniform community of more than two million people, with inhabitants who cross constantly from one side to the other.

Cuéllar, from the ruling party National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and who came to office in 2021stressed that his city “has the advantage that the community of El Paso is very friendly.” and that the majority of the population has “family on both sides.”

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“We don't feel the presence of Texas as much because our Texan neighbors, El Pasoans, are completely different,” he said of Abbott, whom he called “anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant.”

Violence and femicides

Violence and femicides

The presence of the border wall, now reinforced with barbed wire and continuous patrols by the US National Guard, is constant. And, along with him, numerous groups of migrants trying to find their way under the gaze of the uniformed men on the other side.

Juárez is the last stop in the terrible odyssey in which tens of thousands of migrants seeking to reach the US from Central and South America, mainly, although there is an increasing presence of Africans and Asians.

“We are a city of migrants, the simple fact of being on the border with the United States, apart from being in the mere geographic center of a country as large as our neighbors. It is a reality that must be lived with, and that the city has lived with for many years. Maybe today the focus is more on, but here we are used to it. We are a generous city,” he remarked.

Despite his words, the truth is that he faces numerous security challenges.

With the migratory flowOrganized crime is also installed in the city, especially dedicated to human and drug trafficking.. And, as a consequence, one of the great sores of the city is violence.

During the outbreak of insecurity at the end of the first decade of the century, Ciudad Juárez became the most violent city in the world with an average of 4.4 homicides per day in 2008.

Although the statistics have gone down somewhat, The figures are still chilling: in 2023 the city closed with 1,158 murders, which is 3.1 homicides per day. “We are working to, precisely, combat that stigma that we sadly and unfortunately have.

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It's complicated, we still have problems, but they are very limited to the issue of organized crime. “Much of what we have is linked to human and drug trafficking,” said Cuéllar. The objective, he stated, is to work on prevention so that “legal activities are not contaminated by illicit activities.” Finally, there is the tragedy of femicides. Once again, Ciudad Juárez closed last year as the town with the highest violence against women in Mexico.

In 2023, 25 murders of women were classified as femicides, the violent death of a woman for reasons of gender. “There is a very difficult debate there. First, we recognize that we have a problem of gender violence in Juárez.

One of the transversal axes of development in the city is the gender issue. “It's a deep-rooted cultural problem,” she said.

However, he indicated that it is “a taboo topic that has to be addressed” since the “stigma” means that almost all homicides of women in Juárez are considered as such. “And it is not always like that, it also happens that a woman dies because she is in an activity where she should not be (in relation to organized crime). I cannot accept that all the women who lost their lives in our city were feminicide. If there are women murdered for being women has to be addressed, even if it costs us the image of the city. But it is not fair to stigmatize the city,” he concluded.

EFE