Commentary

Texas’ economic partnership with Mexico is an integral component of our state’s long-term economic prosperity, and it’s imperative that we continue to foster cross-border collaboration. For border cities like McAllen, strengthening this bilateral relationship is a major determining factor in reaching our region’s full economic potential.

As the four Texas state senators who live along the Texas-Mexico border, we understand that border security is essential not only for the safety and welfare of everyone who lives in or visits the border region, but also for the efficacy of state services and the strength of our national security.

This is a reply to Sherwood Uhrmacher’s letter posted March 11.

President Kennedy in 1963 signed the Equal Pay Act, the first federal legislation to prohibit sex discrimination in the payment of wages. At that time, women only earned 60 cents for every $1 earned by a man; 61 years later it’s unbelievable that women are still coming up short and the statistics are sobering. According to the Pew Research Center, women on average earn approximately 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in the United States. This gap is even more pronounced for women of color and those from marginalized communities, exacerbating existing inequalities and perpetuating cycles of poverty.

This may not impact those of you who are living paycheck to paycheck, but I would ask you to continue to read on. I often hear people complain that the economy is worse now than it was four years ago. Do you remember what happened four years ago? We were hit by a worldwide pandemic. Was that the fault of the president? Do you remember almost every business that was not critical was closed down? People stayed home with little income. Few cars were on the road. When people did go to the store they wore masks and plastic gloves, and grocery shelves became more and more barren.

When my father was many years into living with Parkinson’s disease, he had lost his speech, his ability to walk, to write, and so much more. For most of his eight decades of life he was an accomplished world traveler, author, pilot, humanitarian, anthropologist, as well as a loving husband and father. It was shocking to see him lose so much — struggling to communicate verbally and having to be fed and assisted with his most basic needs.

As your representative in Washington, I am acutely aware of the challenges our farmers and ranchers face in the Lower Rio Grande Valley due to water shortages. A recent report from Texas A&M’s Center for North American Studies highlights the potential for over $993.2 million in lost economic output for 2024, attributed largely to Mexico’s failure to comply with the 1944 water treaty. This issue is not isolated to our agricultural sector; it is a crisis that threatens our community’s livelihood, our economy, and our way of life.

The ability of artificial intelligence models to generate text and images that look like the work of human beings has captured public attention as the latest and possibly greatest revolution in technology — in areas ranging from medical diagnosis to clean energy.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recent legal assault on El Paso’s Annunciation House should set off alarm bells across Texas’ religious community. He claims, absurdly, without proof that the Catholic non-profit organization is illegally “smuggling” undocumented immigrants. This is because Annunciation House provides immigrants with food, shelter and advice on how to legally apply for asylum to immigrants regardless of their legal status.

On March 4, Texas will celebrate the inaugural COVID-19 Heroes and Memorial Day to remind us of our state’s strength, sacrifice and unwavering spirit during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. As the author and sponsor of Texas House Bill 2166, which established the COVID-19 Heroes and Memorial Day during the 88th Legislative session, we are honored to reflect on the profound significance of this historic event.