Thread: Texas Says No To Transport of Illegal Aliens Through Presidi

Texas Says No To Transport of Illegal Aliens Through Presidio

The Government Monitor
November 2, 2009

Plan would move illegal aliens apprehended in other states through Presidio

Gov. Rick Perry today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging the federal government to stop its plans to transport illegal aliens from other states into Texas solely for the purpose of deportation.

The Alien Transfer and Exit Program (ATEP), which is scheduled to begin tomorrow, would transport more than 34,000 illegal aliens per year through Presidio.

“Turning the Presidio area into a way station for the repatriation of illegal immigrants adds responsibility to local authorities and holds the potential of increasing the strain on local and state infrastructure and resources,â€

Go, Texas!
Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-176503.html

map of the Presidio, Texas, area

One expects NIMBY protests against toxic waste dumps and post-correctional halfway houses. One can easily understand the resistance in Texas to making a border town in Texas the federal deportation point. Even one reentering deportee is one more than there would be if the port of exit were somewhere else.

But I also understand the government's logic.

• 1) Creating a single federal deportation point simplifies the work of fencing and fortifying just one neighboring border against reentry. The remote expanse around Presidio provides little cover to deportees who might attempt to reenter.
  2) Inside the U.S., within 200 miles, there are probably fewer Americans near Presidio than any other border town. Columbus, New Mexico, might be a close second except that it is only 80 miles from El Paso. Douglas, Arizona, is 121 miles from Tucson.
  3) Across the border from Presidio, Progreso does not have an airport nearby, which reduces the opportunity for drug traffickers to hire deportees as mules to smuggle illegal drugs into the U.S..
  4) Deportees can more easily reach Chihuahua, Mexico, 142 miles to the SSW, than the Midland-Odessa area of Texas.

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