Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
Nevada’s senior U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez-Mastos posted this sweet note to social media recently. It included a picture of her grandfather, an immigrant from Mexico, and this note:
Sherman Frederick
“When my grandfather came to America from Mexico, he didn’t know what our future had in store. But he worked hard, and now his granddaughter is the first Latina U.S. Senator.
“That’s the kind of opportunity that I’m fighting to make sure all our families can continue to reach for.”
It appears that she meant this post to be a self-endorsement of her working with President Joe Biden and his immigration policy. It actually serves to condemn the Administration’s immigration policy.
If only every immigrant were like her grandfather. The reality, however, is we have a crisis at the Mexican border with hundreds of thousands of people storming across illegally — day-in, day-out. Not just from Mexico but from around the world, some from sworn enemies of the United States. The dramatic increase in “migrant encounters,” as the federal government calls them, has spiked dramatically since Biden took office. Whether the surge has anything to do with Biden’s border policies is a question for another time. What we can say is that this Administration has done nothing to effectively stem the tide.
Edward Cayetano Cortez came to America and “worked hard” to make a place for himself and his family in the greatest country on the planet. His son, Manny, who I knew well, became an important politician in Clark County and eventually a big shot in Las Vegas gaming and tourism circles.
The Cortez family patriarch didn’t come to America screaming “death to America,” as some did in Michigan last week. He didn’t come here with neck tattoos looking to facilitate a North American branch of a Mexican cartel in Las Vegas. He didn’t come here to live in the shadows, killing nursing students unlucky enough to cross his path.
He came to make a better life for himself. To work hard. To make America better. And, his granddaughter became a U.S. Senator. Pretty damn cool.
But his story isn’t the story of current immigration policy. Biden’s policy is no policy at all. If Sen. Cortez-Mastos wants to honor her family legacy, then she should champion a controlled and organized immigration policy, one that encourages people who want to come here for a better life, not destroy the lives of people already here.
Look, we face immense challenges at the Mexican border. The Biden Administration seems incapable of handling the situation. Maybe Sen. Catherine Cortez-Mastos can help lead her party out of the wilderness.
ONE MORE THING
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Thanks for reading. Remember to laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. You can reach me directly via email at shermfrederick@gmail.com and you can find more of my writing here: https://shermanfrederick.
