Texas governor just announced a razor wire barrier between TX and NM. I’m trying to figure out where. Best I can find is “near Sunland Park”. I’m assuming along the east side of Christo Rey, between Anapra Rd and the old smeltertown area.* Other than schlepping over to check it out myself, has anyone seen any more specific location information than what I’m seeing in this summary and the links within?
*Let’s see if this works:
My immediate reaction to the news was, “When can they get the rest fenced off?” But I know that’s not right.
I’m not a big fan of the attitude Abbott has that primarily Democratic states are enemies he’s entitled to wage war on.
ETA: Sorry, I got carried away. The only location information I’ve seen is “along the Rio Grande near Sunland Park.”
As a former New Mexican, I’m in favor of keeping Texans out. And hey, if we can make them pay for the wall the fence…
As a current New Mexican… if someone has made it to civilization, why would they want to go to Texas?
I saw some speculation that what he’s actually trying to do is to prevent Texan women from traveling here for abortions. This is just speculation, mind you, but Texas politicians have been making noises about banning out of state travel for the purpose of obtaining abortions. There was a time I’d have dismissed that possibility, but we’re apparently heading back to a time when women didn’t have the same rights as men, and the Supreme Court seems happy with it.
That and weed. There are far too many dispensaries in NM (most will probably be broke with a year or two) but the ones in Sunland Park seem to do pretty well.
First of all, aren’t any such women going to be traveling on roads and highways to get to New Mexico, so unless he’s planning on blocking those, I don’t see how this helps. Second, doesn’t the Constitution prevent states from interfering in interstate commerce?
If the plan is to prosecute Texan women who travel to NM for an abortion (whether or not this would hold up), presumably a first step is to ensure that they can only travel into NM via checkpoints, at which (perhaps on some pretense) you ID them. I don’t think anyone can rule out the possibility that they are rolling out barbed wire on the expectation that something like this might be deemed legal by the SC.
I really can’t imagine Texas setting up checkpoints at the New Mexico border but who knows what Gov Abbott is planning?
The antiabortionists are working on that as well:
Abbott: “Mexico, New Mexico - all same.”
We really need the Federal Government to crack down on these Handmaid’s Tale states pulling stuff like this.
We are guaranteed freedom of travel in the United States. We do not need to present ID to leave or enter any state from another state, Using their warped logic, states that have no casinos can prosecute people for going to Las Vegas and gamble. Not happening. I’m sick to death of these jerks trying to impose their religion on others. We don’t need or want a Christian Taliban!
It’s not even the so-called “Interstate Commerce Clause” (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), which just gives Congress the power to “…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". As a resident of the United States you have a right for unrestricted travel between states:
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
One of the (implicit but historically well understood) rights is freedom to travel unhindered short of imposition of martial law or a public safety emergency. I suppose in the mind of Abbott et al that a woman seeking an abortion or an undocumented migrant moving between states might constitute a public health risk but that is an interpretation to be found nowhere in statute or case law, and arbitrarily building fortifications at state borders is both such at odds with nearly a quarter millennia of Constitutional interpretation and a harbinger of authoritarianism to come that it should be a waving flag to the people who dismiss it as just differing views of normal governance on a linear spectrum between “left” and “right”.
Stranger
Moderator Note
Since apparently EVERYONE in the thread has completely missed the FQ question in the OP, here it is again:
The pros and cons of the barrier, as well as the political aspects of it, are all completely off-topic for FQ.
This article from the Santa Fe New Mexican says, “along the Rio Grande near Sunland Park.”
People make that mistake all the time, apparently.