Texas Reputation as Business Magnet
Could Be Casualty in Border PR Gorge

Capitol Inside
June 17, 2021

Texas Republicans could be killing economic development on the Rio Grande by playing along with Governor Greg Abbott's wildly exaggerated claims on rivers of dangerous criminals flowing across the southern border and on the verge of spreading to other parts of the state.

But Abbott and the Republicans have shown no sign of concern on the potential damage that they could be doing to the state and local economies in major border cities that have been the safest places in Texas to live for years despite the persistent problem that illegal immigration always has been.

Corporate executives who've been weighing possible relocations or expansions in Texas may be pulling plugs on such plans if they buy into the narrative that the governor presented at a press conference on Wednesday that he used to christen his plans to have the state build a border wall with a mix of public and private funds.

The publicity from the Capitol media event alone may have effectively buried any hopes that cities and counties on or near the border had for comebacks from the coronavirus pandemic by recruiting new business as a catalyst and magnet for growth.

More than 30 GOP lawmakers who Abbott cast as extras at the border briefing shouldn't be surprised if their districts lose business as the wages of the scare tactics and misinformation campaign that they're using to raise cash for the barrier that the state will kickstart with an initial investment of $250,000 by the state in a project manager for the Republicans' new wall.

The news conference was elaborately choreographed to make a spectacular splash across the USA - with Abbott's legislative allies stacked on three rows of rafters behind him like a choir at a southern Baptist church.

The legislators in the backdrop gave Abbott several rounds of applause - appearing especially excited when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan contributed to a pivotal photo op with their ceremonious signing of a letter that authorized the expenditure for the start up funds for the new state border wall.

The prevailing sentiment at the Capitol has been that Abbott is seizing on the migrant crisis as a cannon shot for the conservative base in advance of a re-election race next year and a potential White House bid in 2024. The governor has appeared to be doing his best to emulate Donald Trump with his posturing and rhetoric on the border.

The truth is that the major Texas border cities of El Paso, Laredo, Eagle Pass, Del Rio and McAllen have had lower rates of violent and property crime in the past year than all of the other Texas cities of comparable size or larger according to research by the security firm Safewise. All of those border cities have long been controlled by Democrats.

Cities that Republicans run like Lubbock, Beaumont and Odessa were ranked among the 10 most dangerous places to live in Texas during the same span of time with GOP outposts like Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Longview and Bryan plagued by more violent crime than their counterparts on the border.

 

 

 

 

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