Murder at the Texas Border

As of publication, at least two bodies have been found in the barrier floating in the Rio Grande River at the Texas-Mexico border. Since its construction by the arch-reactionary leadership of the state of Texas, headed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, the barrier has signaled an escalation of violence against immigrant workers and their families.

The barrier is lined with sharp-toothed saws, with razor wire covering the riverbank. The only conclusion we can draw from these measures is that the state of Texas intends to make people pay with their lives for the crime of seeking refuge from economic insecurity, violence at home, and climate disaster.

Along with the weaponized barriers, Texas state troopers have allegedly been instructed to physically push migrants back into the water—pregnant mothers and children included. Already, there is at least one recorded miscarriage from a mother who got tangled in the barbed wire.

In a state filled with cynical politicians claiming to champion the lives of “the unborn,” you would think they would want to prevent that. However, Abbott has redirected $500 million from other agencies, such as the Health and Human Services Commission, to continue this violent adventure.

At Socialist Revolution, we have documented at length the criminal policies and “solutions” introduced by both Republicans and Democrats to this so-called “migrant crisis” over the decades. This “crisis” has only gotten worse, no matter which of the two bourgeois parties is in power. That is because capitalism itself is the root of the problem, and it must be overthrown to change anything for the better.

Even “blue saviors” like Beto O’Rourke advocate “bipartisan” solutions and a more lightly militarized border. The most “outspoken” Texas Democrats only ask: what kind of compromise should we make with the openly violent, bigoted politicians to “stem the tide” and ameliorate the “crisis”? In other cases, Democrats have wholeheartedly embraced an openly reactionary, xenophobic outlook. Such was the case with NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who blames immigrants for “destroying” the city.

We are all familiar with the rhetoric of fear and blame that capitalist politicians place on immigrant workers: “drugs” and “criminals” entering the country, a “burden” on the economy, and so on. This amounts to a reactionary culture war against those who are born outside the arbitrarily drawn US border.

Without a mass communist party proposing a working-class solution, the response to these issues is left in the hands of the capitalist class, which controls both major parties and the media. A lack of a real option outside of these parties drives the working class into the hands of demagogues who weaponize economic dislocation and the culture war to keep workers from focusing on the actual enemy: the capitalists and their system.

As internationalists, communists reject the racist scapegoating of immigrants. People do not make the notoriously dangerous trek from their home country to a foreign land, leaving behind family and friends, on a whim. The conditions from which these immigrant workers seek refuge have forced them into an existential crisis. We have a unique responsibility as communists in the US to understand that imperialism has created the conditions that compel those seeking a better future to flee their native countries. We have a duty to organize to overthrow capitalism and thereby dismantle the deadly immigration system.

Our answer is not to “stem the tide” of immigrants, but to fight to abolish the need for borders and welcome our working-class brothers and sisters into a united struggle against capitalism in the US and worldwide. We must see immigrant workers as our sisters and brothers in the class struggle. Only by ending imperialism and guaranteeing everyone employment and adequate resources to live a comfortable life, immigrant or not, can we solve this “crisis.”

The US is the richest country in the world, and could begin the transition to make this happen immediately. Once jobs are plentiful and life is good worldwide, people will be able to move freely, based on their desires and interests, not economic necessity. But the prerequisite is for the working class to organize and take what’s ours: the enormous wealth that is hoarded and wasted on the billionaire capitalists.

The bourgeois state and its capitalist parties offer no path to this outcome and must be smashed into a million pieces. Any self-described communist or socialist who supports the Democrats should consider that party’s blatantly reactionary position on this and all other fundamental class issues. The only way to defeat the party of the reactionary conservatives, in Texas and beyond, is to fight them on a class-independent basis—not by supporting their “friends across the aisle.” We must fight them with the power of our numbers and as those who make everything run in society. This means militant organization in the workplace and in the streets, combined with an independent revolutionary lead fighting for political and economic power for the majority.

A fighting communist party says no to walls, deportation centers, and repression at the border!

All workers must unite and fight to end all racist immigration and asylum controls!

For immediate and unconditional legalization, full rights, and amnesty for undocumented workers and their families!

The working class has no borders, and every communist should be organizing to make that a reality in our lifetime!