Inside the Checkpoints: The Only Way Obama Can Win Texas on March 4

For the first time in over half a century, Texas will play the pivotal role in the selection of the party candidates that will face off in the general election for President of the United States. Particularly interesting is the fact that for the first time in US history, the Hispanic population of Texas is being courted as key players in the primaries. The real pivotal point, however, will be in South Texas, the Texas-Mexico border region.  If Barack Obama hopes to win Texas, he must win in South Texas.

Only the Democratic Party seems cognizant of and desirous enough of the now powerful Hispanic vote that they are willing to invest deeply to get it. Of the two Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it has long been presumed that Hillary has the advantage in the Hispanic vote, especially those in Texas. She especially recognizes the power of the South Texas. She just launched her Texas campaign in El Paso and has already opened offices on the Texas-Mexico border. Yet, her presumed advantage is about to change, especially when the Hispanic population comes to grips with the fact that the Clintons are not the champions that they have projected themselves to be. Most Hispanics are unaware that NAFTA, the border walls and privatized profit prisons were “extreme right” agendas drawn up prior to Clinton being elected, yet it was the Clinton-Gore administration that pushed through these tragic programs in partnership with the conservative ruling elite. In the mid 1990s, Clinton pushed through NAFTA. Clinton built the first border wall in San Diego. In the mid 1990s, Clinton and Gore launched the private profit prison phenomena, and in Texas, that was done in partnership with the then Governor George W. Bush.

There are some 6-8 million Americans that live on the Texas-Mexico border, from El Paso to Brownsville, who feel that they are neglected and victimized by Austin and Washington. Interestingly this region is not only the poorest in Texas; it is also poorest in the entire United States.

Under the Bushes and the Clintons, the border region has suffered accelerated and spiraling oppression and tyranny. There is an economic implosion over so-called border security and agonizing over “legal” border hassle. Militarization along the US-Mexico border is up to 17,500 troops, a number, according to Chertoff and George W, which will be doubled by the end of this year. The Department of Homeland Security is suing individual property owners, a border city and the University of Texas Brownsville to seize their lands for a border wall that citizens of the Texas Mexico border abhor the mere thought of. Much of the borderlands have undocumented refugees that only want to survive. They are absorbed and are an accepted part of the community. Yet, under the Bush and Clinton master plans, they are summarily hunted down in inhumane ways and imprisoned for profit and finally deported.

Meanwhile, in the northern part of Texas, cities and communities profile immigrants, demanding proof of citizenship if anyone “looks” Hispanic. Such communities have attempted to criminalize the existence of and purge their communities of immigrants, through ordinances and legislation.

While Obama’s record on the Iraq war is pure, never having voted for it, his record with immigrants is not pure. Perhaps he lived too far north to understand the Texas-Mexico border. He did vote for the Secure Fence Act, which essentially was passed with the same extreme right corrupt politics as the Iraq war. So he is not as clean on the militarizing of the Texas border as he is on the militarizing of Iraq. Nonetheless, he has stated that “change” will start with the grassroots up…the way it’s supposed to be.

If Barack Obama wants to win Texas big, if he wants to win the hearts of the real Texas grassroots, if he wants to garner the Hispanic vote, if he wants to be the champion of the poor, he needs go no farther then the Texas-Mexico border. It is here that the poorest region of all America exists, where hundreds of thousands of neglected Veterans live, where the highest percentage of Texas Hispanics live. He would need to convince us that he will stop the border wall, that he will stop the internment camps, that he will stop the ICE raids and the ENDGAME, that he will end the militarization of American soil and the harassment of American citizens of color, that he will treat our neighboring country and Number 1 trading partner with love and respect, that he will stop the economic slavery of NAFTA, that he will insure that children are not imprisoned for profit, that he will not allow private and public land to be seized for something as totalitarian as an “iron curtain”. He will have to convince “we the people” of South Texas that that he will stand WITH us in leadership. Otherwise the politically corrupt roots of the Clintons and Bushes will prevail.

For this reason, Border Ambassadors, a grassroots network along the Texas-Mexico border, has scheduled and organized the February 25-March 2 protest walk against the border wall. This walk is designed to directly impact the Texas primaries. We want one candidate who will shout “NO BORDER WALL” with those of us who reside in solidarity and amistad along the Texas-Mexico border.

The walk is therefore being called the March 4 March 4. It is a 63-mile walk over seven days. It will start at the University of Texas in Brownsville, go up the Old Military Highway, and pass through communities threatened by the construction of the “border wall”, like El Calaboz and Granjero. The walk will end on March 2 at La Lomita, the historical site of the original mission on the banks of the Rio Grande, built by the Oblates in what is now Mission, Texas, a site threatened to be cut off by the Clinton-Bush “iron curtain”. Upon arrival of the March 4 March 4, there will be a reception hosted by Father Roy Snipes of the La Lomita Mission. The March 4 March 4, will demand that the issues and sufferings of South Texas be on the lips of the candidates in their quest for the coveted Texas delegates.

All Presidential candidates will be invited to participate in the March 4 March 4. If Obama, or any other candidate, would join ranks with the people of South Texas, Hispanics all over the state and around the country would take note. Here along the Texas-Mexico border, the region is not only comprised of the poorest Americans in the whole country, but the highest percentage of Hispanics. Hispanics all over Texas and America have roots or connections in the Texas-Mexico borderlands. Ignore South Texas and loose.

To listen to the people of South Texas, to walk with them in solidarity, to join in opposing the tyranny of the current administration would mean real “Change”. “Change we can believe in”. Such a show of solidarity would endear Barack Obama to Hispanics from all over Texas and the United States of America, not just during the primaries but during the run for the White House. But, to earn that endearment, he will have to oppose the border wall. He would have to oppose the militarization of the border, especially of mercenary forces like Blackwater and DynCorp. He would have to oppose the ICE raids and the Endgame. He would have to oppose the private “for profit” immigrant internment camps. It is quite obvious that if Obama wants the Hispanic vote in Texas and take home the prized Texas delegates the aforementioned is precisely what he will have to do.

As for the Texas borderlands, can we who reside “Inside the Checkpoints” really make that powerful of impact on the Texas primaries on March 4, 2008?

“Yes we can!”

“Yes we will!”

Read the March 4 March 4 press release