Critique an editorial or commentary from a Texas newspaper

Rodriguez: Abbott wrong to put politics before the needs of people

The Democratic Rep. Eddie Rodriguez published in MyStatesman an opinion of how Gov. Greg Abbott is targeting to Travis County with “intimidation tactics” for all the public and institutionalized policies taken in the County in response to the immigration banning made by the federal government.  Rep. Rodriguez gives a list of several attempts to stop Travis County with the pro-immigration policies that hurt the County programs.

He mentions that Gov. Abott is cutting resources from offices that are not related to the Travis County Sheriff’s office. This action makes us question what is exactly the war against Sheriff Hernandez that we see on the TV or news. Maybe the law supports her when she fights for her progressive policy of honor ICE detainees when they face a felony for the Travis County Jail. That brings us to a new hypothesis that he does not want to deal with the people affected by the cuttings and Gov. Abott would be using Sheriff Hernandez as a distraction.

It is impressive that the movement #StrongerTogether could rise over $100,000 and joined more than 1500 people supporting to their local government. This shows that local residents actually believe and support the decisions of their local authorities in despite of the coercive attitudes of the state authorities that show to the community actions that are founded in fear or punishment for being disagree with them.

I did not see any video streaming of what Rep Rodriguez says about “unmarked, official –looking vehicles and armed occupants detaining people”. I would consider risky to affirm that because that would bring us to all the claims that U.S.A. has been making of other governments doing the same thing, and that U.S.A. penalized them internationally.  In case that this would be true, the state authorities would have to hide it very well to avoid future repercussions.

I agree with the Rep. Rodriguez with the uncertainty of the actions of the federal and state governments. However, for sure we know that both are linked to each other since the governments in the two levels are looking at the same direction.

The intention of the opinion published is informative since the Rep. Rodriguez is part of the House Committees on Economic & Small Business Development, YMCA Caucus, Mexican American Legislative Caucus and, House Democratic Caucus, so we can be sure that he has firsthand information about political battles.

Rodriguez, Eddie. "Rodriguez: Abbott Wrong to Put Politics before the Needs of People." My Statesman. N.p., 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.