At first blush, we couldn't tell what the campaign poster affixed to the metal marquee at Capt. Bob's Restaurant on Price Road meant.
Was it an anti-border wall advertisement? Or was it a message to border residents to stand up against Donald Trump's plans to build a border wall across the entire length of the U.S. Mexico border?
And who was Vicente Gonzalez? As far as we knew, there was no such politician in Brownsville or Cameron County. Since he is pictured on the opposite side of the Rio Grande by the Old Bridge, we figured it might be District 34 U.S. Representative Filemon Vela's counterpart on the Mexican side, you know, a diputado del congreso Mexicano.We looked a little deeper and found out that Gonzalez is actually the U.S. Rep. for District 15, in neighboring Hidalgo County. He has introduced bills to rescind funding for Trump's border wall as well as a bill that would allow U.S. Armed Fores veterans who have been deported to go through the naturalization process abroad and be allowed to return to the country they served.
Vela, on the other hand, has been strident in his rejection of Trump immigration policies and the construction of the border wall. He says on his website that:
"President Trump’s endorsement of policies that rip families apart and slash legal migration to the United States is stupid and shortsighted.
The idea that poor immigrants are a drag on society is simply not true.
He seems to forget that his own mother, Mary Anne Macleod, came into this country from Scotland as a domestic worker, with only fifty dollars in her pocket.
In other words, this policy would have barred entry to his mother. And without his immigrant, low-wage mother, President Trump would not exist today.
If that's not the height of hypocrisy, then I don't know what is."
On August 1, Gonzalez wrote Texas Gov. Greg Abbott:
"Last week, I filed the Repatriate our Patriots Act in the U.S. House of Representatives with Congressmen Don Young of Alaska and Beto O’Rourke of Texas as original co-sponsors. This bipartisan legislation would allow deported veterans who were honorably discharged or released to go through the naturalization process abroad."This excludes those who have been convicted of crimes such as voluntary manslaughter, murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, child abuse, and/or terrorism. The legislation would have the Attorney General cancel or rescind a removal order that effects any eligible veteran, and subsequently change his or her status to legal permanent resident.
"It would also require the Secretary of Homeland Security to create a program and application procedure to allow veterans, who are eligible and were removed prior to the bill’s enactment, to return to the U.S. as a lawfully admitted permanent resident.
"Veterans who meet the bill’s requirements would also regain access to all military and veteran’s benefits. Finally, the bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to identify and maintain records of immigration cases involving qualifying veterans."
Both men probably figured that since they see eye to eye on the wall and Trump's immigration policies, it stands to reason that they would run for re-election together. Both congressional districts are the so-called "fajita districts" that stretch from the river and go all the way up to the areas outside San Antonio, with Vela's skirting Corpus Christi. Do Gonzalez's campaign signs also feature a photo of Vela?
The congressmen probably figured their constituents would like to see that there is another congressman who will support their incumbent against the forces of evil in Washington, D.C.
Will it work?