5-13-19 Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, and the border

The blimpy thing you see in the third picture (above) is part of the Tethered Aerostat Radar System, or TARS, watch over the southern U.S. border. I saw one of them on the ground as I drove through W. Texas.

In Brownsville, deep in the southern tip of Texas plunging into Mexico and the Gulf, is the Sabal Palm Sanctuary, a 557-acre preserve, right on the Rio Grande, protecting the last of the Sabal palm forests. It's wild, junglish, and filled with the sounds of birds cackling at each other, like old couples who argue out of habit more than anything else. If you watch the video to the end, you can catch a (limited) glimpse of the Rio Grande, or as the Mexicans call it, Rio Bravo.

I stopped by the National Butterfly Center, about an hour north of Brownsville, but there had just been a torrential downpour, so all the butterflies had taken cover and were waiting for their wings to dry. I did manage to see one lonely butterfly; maybe 2. Other pictures here. You can see how wet it was. It must be truly glorious when the place is dry and kinetic with color. But I learned that the Center is threatened by Trump's build-a-wall plans, where he wants to build hundreds of feet in from the River, clearing out the vegetation and habitat, and creating a 24-hour day with floodlights.

The guy at the center told me it would be disastrous ecologically. He doesn't oppose a wall, but can't understand why they don't simply build the wall at the river and spare the wildlife.  The issue will be decided (surprise) in court.

There is considerable evidence  of the "wall issue," and more generally, stepped up border enforcement.

From what I saw, it would be an exaggeration to say the border has been militarized, but the Border Patrol is definitely a presence, the white and green CBP trucks ubiquitous.

I was particularly struck by this scene... a CBP truck standing guard (on the left), silently menacing would-be intruders, near the entrance to the Sabal Palm Sanctuary. Sanctuary is only for trees. I suppose the birds and other creatures are ok too.