美媒：得州“悲惨周末”凸显美国两大政治裂痕
A weekend of tragedy in Texas spotlights two distinctly American political fissures

The tragedies were unrelated. But both moments of aching sorrow took place against a backdrop of two of the nation’s most divisive issues, both of which are especially acute inTexasand which fractured national politics has failed to fix– mass shootings and a border crisis.

Suspicion of government runs hot in the Lone Star State. It often appears to exemplify the extremes of American life. It has also had the misfortune of suffering a sequence of shootings, including in a school in Uvalde last year, a Walmart shopping center in El Paso in 2019 and a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017.

Texas is also expected to be at the center of a different political storm this week with the expiration on Thursday of the Covid-era border restriction that has enabled the US to swiftly expel certain migrants. The anticipated end of the policy, which has been the primary border enforcement tool since March 2020, has already led to an influx of migrants, with fears about a surge after it’s lifted. Republican warnings of a foreign invasion by undocumented migrants have deepened a political vulnerability for President Joe Biden as the administration has struggled to counter claims of a border crisis.

But as in the case of mass shootings, there is little chance that the nation’s polarized politics will easein order tooffer the space for meaningful resolution. Comprehensive immigration reform failed several times under Republican and Democratic presidents and there is little agreement between or within the parties on how to mitigate the situation at a time when crime, violence and economic blight are exacerbating migrant flows from Central America toward the southern border.

But Democrats in Texas reacted to Saturday’s shooting by slamming the Republican governor for doing nothing to stop the killing sprees on his watch. State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer warned in a statement that it was “a choice to allow this nightmare of gun violence to continue.”

“While the incident is still under investigation, there is no doubt that our state’s leaders are painting a target on migrants’ backs,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa.

New controversy over migrants in Texas comes with the White House under heavy criticism from Republicans over border issues – an issue that has long caused political headaches for Biden, who just launched his 2024 reelection race.