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Matamoros, state of Tamaulipas, Mexico
Thank you all for inviting me here.
Governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores, it is always a pleasure to see you. Not only are you a good friend, but I’ve enjoyed working with you on projects important to your state and region.
Presidente Municipal Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa, as you know your city has an important place in my life and my heart and you have provided it with good leadership. It is good to see you.
Secretary Ramón Gonzalez, Undersecretary Yanez Robles, Director General San Martín, and Undersecretary Rico – I am going to welcome you with what I always say to my wife Maríasun when we visit this part of the world: “Welcome to God’s country.”
Mayor Treviño, Director Moran, Judge Cascos, and Commissioner Basham – thank you for your presence this afternoon and for providing such outstanding service to the community I call home.
From this point, I can almost see 14th and Elizabeth in Brownsville, where my dad spent so many years of his life and where I grew up. When I was a boy, the border was a far different, quieter place. My father had a filling station in downtown Brownsville, and I remember going with him on Saturday mornings to take delivery of the gas he’d sell the following week. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, my father would buy his gas and then sell it for 19 cents a gallon. In those days, the border was more of a state of mind than a physical barrier.
We’d cross the bridge into Matamoros on our bicycles to play football or baseball and have lunch with family or friends. I remember seeing folks headed north across the river in the morning to work in Texas and returning later in the day to their families and communities in Tamaulipas.
I don’t imagine that it should surprise any of you that someone in his late 40’s would be nostalgic for the way things were, but the border has changed dramatically . . . and, seemingly overnight. Today, my father’s filling station no longer exists, but if it did it would sit right in the middle of a major highway leading to a bridge that over 5 million people crossed last year and resting on a border where over $1 billion in legitimate goods and commerce pass through every single day. . . . and we all know what we’re paying for gas.
As some might remember, I served as County Judge in Brownsville when what we called “Los Tomates Bridge Project” was maturing from hopeful idea to eventual reality. But the bridge was never a given. Were it not for people like former Mayor Ruben Edelstein whose vision inspired this project in the 1970s, former Mayor Nacho Garza who worked so hard on the permitting in the 1990s, former Commissioners Lucino Rosenbaum, Carlos Cascos and their successors, we would not be standing at this site celebrating the new SENTRI lane.
This SENTRI lane is an important project for both sides of our border as it will allow faster and more efficient travel for individuals and businesses as they go back and forth. This bridge is a demonstration not only to our bilateral cooperation, but to the strengthening prosperity of our border.
This bridge lies at the heart of a commercial relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and a cultural relationship whose value cannot be reduced to dollars or pesos. This very spot is the gateway for millions of legitimate travelers and billions of dollars in commerce.
As important as innovations like SENTRI are to this region, they will succeed only if we all commit ourselves to keeping the border safe and open to commerce. Corruption and narco violence are debasing society at all levels, threatening the very fabric of the institutions that hold us together. Just last week, the U.S. Embassy renewed a public announcement, asking U.S. citizens to use caution while traveling in Mexico. This announcement is something, that as a younger man, I would have never imagined necessary.
Initiatives like the SENTRI lane allow goods and law-abiding citizens to cross our border while allowing us to dedicate our law enforcement resources to confronting unlawful and dangerous crossings from both sides of the border. Mexicans and Americans deserve the right to enjoy security and prosperity in this beautiful region, and it is our shared responsibility to make that happen.
I would like to congratulate all of you who have formed this alliance, for your vision and your commitment to improving the lives of all our citizens in this region. And thank you for showing us that by working together we can tackle the many challenges we face as neighbors and friends.
I’ll close as I always do, with a simple prayer, and that is this: May God bless Mexico and the United States, and may He especially bless this incredible place we call home.
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