Govs. Reynolds, Abbott treat U.S. as a gated community

This past week, a three-year-old child died en route to Chicago on a bus chartered as part of Operation Lone Star, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s scheme to ship migrants from his state to Democratic-run cities. The Texas Department of Emergency Management, which runs his operation, has ignored requests for information about the name or sex of the child, the family’s country of origin, or the nature of the illness. I guess they want us to forget this ever happened.

Since Abbott’s program began 16 months ago, 30,000 migrants have been bussed out of Texas. Prior to boarding the bus, each passenger is asked if they need medical assistance. The child did not indicate such a need.

This May, Title 42 restrictions on immigration put in place by President Trump in March 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak were lifted. I felt at the time that Trump’s executive order was a dishonest way of addressing immigration policy. In September 2020, two-thirds of all Republicans claimed the COVID outbreak was overblown or exaggerated (Pew Research), and one year later, only 56 percent of all Republicans had been vaccinated to protect themselves from COVID (Gallup).

Gov. Kim Reynolds recently sent 109 members of the Iowa National Guard to Texas in response to the “border crisis.” By the end of August, she’ll also send Iowa State Troopers. She too seems to believe we should shut down our southern border, protecting it with walls and razor wire, as if the United States were some vast gated community.

David Duer

Iowa City