Wronging Our Border Patrol
What to Know: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas knew that Border Patrol agents were innocent even as President Biden sharply criticized the agency after some misleading photos of agents on horseback were released.
The TPPF Take: The Biden administration’s treatment of our Border Patrol agents was shameful.
“What our agents needed in the following months was support—not vilification. The lengthy report makes it clear that no migrants were harmed,” says TPPF’s Rodney Scott. “Yet after the president’s and vice president’s condemnations and pledges of ‘consequences,’ the agency seems have been determined to find that someone, at some point, did something wrong. So it did.”
For more about Border Patrol, click here.
Homeless and Hopeless
What to Know: An Alabama mother drove to Houston to search for her homeless, mentally ill and addicted son. She’s gotten no help from the city of Houston.
The TPPF Take: This is what happens when governments take a “Housing First” approach, which really means they’ll address housing needs while ignoring the real causes of homelessness.
“In our government’s sincere attempts to help the homeless, we have prevented many homeless people from achieving their potential. Because we do not help them get better, we condemn them to ‘remaining so,’” says TPPF’s Michele Steeb. “Absolving the homeless from societal requirements—allowing them to behave without the rules to which we all must adhere to thrive—prevents the government from effectively addressing the nation’s homelessness crisis, and from helping the homeless achieve their innate potential.”
For more on homelessness, click here.
Broadband Access
What to Know: According to the Texas comptroller, about 7 million Texans don’t have access to broadband internet at home.
The TPPF Take: It’s important to understand the difference between having access and having a subscription.
“Currently, about 98% of Texas’ geographic area, and about 94% of its people, have access to broadband, whereas only about 85% have broadband subscriptions,” says TPPF’s Caroline Welton. “Since areas without broadband are concentrated in areas with low populations, it is apparent that most of the progress to be made lies in boosting subscriptions in areas which already have some level of access.”
For more on broadband, click here.