A DAY IN NUEVO PROGRESO

I traveled to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, in July 2023 with a friend who was once responsible for installing surveillance equipment all along the Texas border.  He retired 10 years ago and has lived in South Padre Island for many years, so his observations may be dated and no longer valid.  He rarely saw any Border Patrol agents when he was supervising the equipment installation.  There are agents at the entry points to the US, but only a few.  It took us almost an hour in the car to cross back into the US, as there was a long line and only two lanes open.  During the wait, we never saw any car searches.  Our time at the booth only took about 15 seconds for him to glance at our passports and wave us back into the US.  Of course, this could be due to both of us being geezers. I told my travel buddy that we would be perfect drug smugglers and could make good money.  He didn’t find the humor in my observation.

 

The surveillance cameras on the border are monitored by about 60 Border Patrol agents in Harlingen, TX, approximately 27 miles from the closest border crossing.  During my friend’s tenure working on the border, he observed a few agents looking at the monitor; most were shooting the breeze, and everyone had the weekend off. 

 

When I asked what happened when they saw people crossing the river, he didn’t know because he never saw Border Patrol agents patrolling the border.  To be fair, the border is 1254 miles long, so it’s not unheard of to see mostly bushes on “our” side of the river for most of the distance and some mountains from Big Bend to El Paso.  Otherwise, the terrain is mostly flat on both sides of the river. There are only 28 international bridges connecting Mexico and Texas.  I’ve been across 5 or 6 of them, with Matamoras as the latest before this trip to Progreso.  Drug wars are now rampant in Matamoras, which was not considered on this trip.  Once one of them prevails, crossing over will be safe again.

I told my friend that Mexico had the drug cartels, and we have the gun cartels.  Again, he didn’t think my remark was humorous because he had just unloaded his guns from his truck before our trip.

 

We traveled close to the border on the US side for at least 20 miles.  I never spotted a Border Patrol vehicle the entire round trip.  Also, I never saw anyone illegally crossing the border into our country.  If you listened to some of the current rhetoric about hordes of illegals crossing the border, it simply isn’t true in my experience, and I’ve been at the border five times in the past six years.

 

I’ve attached pictures of the border wall as part of this post.  Again, very few portions of the wall were erected.  As you see, there are considerable gaps in the pieces that are erected, which makes it very easy to go around.  Your tax dollars spent $15 billion on this joke of a wall totaling 738 miles which equals $20 million a mile.  Wasn’t Mexico going to pay for it?  Never mind, our sociopathic governor has the solution:  place razor wire and 4-foot-tall, spiked buoys in the middle of the Rio Grande River!

 

I never saw anyone in a Mexican military uniform during our brief visit to Nuevo Progreso.  According to my friend, who makes a trip to Nuevo Progreso every two weeks to have dental work, the Gulf Drug Cartel controls the town entirely and is one of the safest border towns because of it.  I never felt threatened and never saw any violence.  In fact, the Mexican people are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.  They want our money, but they could be like many businesses in the States and not care if you’re happy.

 

One of my other local friends, who has volunteered with Angry Tias and Abuelas for the past five years, told the story of an Afghan man who came into the country through the border seeking asylum.  He somehow made it to the US, but now the government wants to deport him.  He assisted our troops when we occupied Afghanistan, but he did so unofficially.  The Taliban will kill him if he returns.  My friend is trying to advocate for him but is running into roadblocks, and it doesn’t look promising.  She’s also working with a family who was mowed down by a car in Brownsville.  The crazed driver deliberately drove his car into a group of immigrants who had been processed to legally enter our country. One man has been in the hospital with serious injuries.  She’s raising money to bring the rest of his family as an emergency, which is allowable under the rules governing temporary entry for humanitarian reasons.  To assist this family, please make donations to angrytiasandabuelas.com. You can also read about the other wonderful projects they are accomplishing to help families coming to our country for a better life.