Community reacts to Vice-President’s border visit
Calexico community reacts to news that Vice-President Mike Pence is visiting on Monday.
Council Member Jesus Eduardo Escobar said, “Is this really a political visit? Because at the end of the day the funding is there, the ports will be built, the fence is a completely different matter altogether. That is a political issue.”
The vice-president is expected to arrive at Naval Air Facility El Centro in the morning; from there he’s scheduled to go speak to border patrol employees at El Centro Sector Headquarters. After that, he will go inspect the border fence work being done west of the Calexico outlets.
City Economic Commissioner Ben Horton said, “This is more of a fact finding. It gives him a chance to see it at first-hand and to make his assessment on what’s going on the line, how things are moving along. And to hear it from the people that are there, the border patrol, the people that are building the fence, putting it together and controlling it.”
Escobar said the administration should address other issues, as well.
“We’re not addressing the border wait times. We’re not addressing how border wait times affect our air pollution, how they affect our economy locally, because we depend on the Mexican peso and the Mexican consumer to come to Calexico, to come to Imperial Valley and shop here,” Escobar said.
He encouraged other options in looking for ways to secure the border.
“We should use existing technology to safeguard our fence, to safeguard our border versus building a wall, a multi-billion dollar wall when we can use existing technology,” Escobar said.
Former City Mayor Tony Tirado is hoping for a strong local reaction.
“I hope that there’s plenty of people for him to get an expression from us that it’s not proper for them to build the wall. For people from Mexicali and people from Imperial Valley and perhaps from other areas to come in and demonstrate,” Tirado said.
Vice-president Mike pence expected at the border fence work area around midafternoon.
“It’s an offense to us to come here and tell us, we’re going to build the wall,” Tirado said.
