VIEWPOINT: Immigration question shouldn't stop at border

Trip to southern border highlights need to support local communities, workers

An entrance through a border wall near Hidalgo, Texas. (Austin Goss/The Dakota Scout)

I joined a group of South Dakota state lawmakers and other community leaders from across the state on a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border last week, to the city of McAllen, Texas. The junket was put together by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a right-leaning political advocacy group. 

The most novice of journalists would walk away with one obvious question to start — why did AFP pay for people to go down there? Presumptively, AFP could have sent down South Dakota’s federal policy makers — one of which previously voted against funding for the border wall. Instead, they opted for a trio of leaders from the state House and Senate, and a handful of other influential folks.

The answer provided was that they wanted to help leaders from across the country learn more about what was happening at the border. “(We are) an organization that has drawn a line in the sand and has said, here are some things that we believe in,” AFP State Director Keith Moore told me.

VIEWPOINT: An eye-opening trip to the border