What do you think is the deadliest land route for migrants in the world? Maybe the Sahara Desert? Or maybe the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama? No, and No. 

The deadliest land route in the world is the U.S.-Mexico border.

You may ask, “But how can that be? With all the wealth and resources in this country, don’t they have ways to keep people from drowning, or dying in the desert from thirst, or getting bitten by poisonous snakes, or suffocating in the backs of trucks?” 

Of course they do. 

So why do so many desperate migrants die? The migrants die by design—of the imperialists in the U.S.

And now the world’s deadliest border just got deadlier.

A Large Army in a Strategic Area

On February 16, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas is building a “forward operating base” along the state’s border with Mexico, just south of the small city of Eagle Pass. 

Construction of the new base has already begun. Three hundred soldiers are expected to be housed in it by mid-April. Three hundred more will be added regularly until it reaches full capacity. It will include three command posts, weapons storage rooms, and a helicopter pad. Vast amounts of advanced military gear are already in use against migrants along the border. Now more will pour in. Texas will apparently continue its military occupation of Shelby Park in central Eagle Pass, including the massive amounts of deadly razor wire in and along the banks of the Rio Grande, the river that separates the two countries.

Texas has deployed National Guard troops and state police up and down the border since 2021 as part of “Operation Lone Star.” But this base solidifies the permanent presence of a large military force dedicated to “controlling” the border. As Abbott said in a press conference, it will be “a large army in a very strategic area.” 

Rapid and Dangerous Escalations

This base is a major escalation in two ways. 

First, it's an escalation of the utterly illegitimate and violent repression of immigrants. Millions have fled to the U.S. for the basic ability to survive only to be met with barbed wire, detention centers and the increased danger of drowning. They are fleeing wars, droughts and violence caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism, only to be met with the repressive apparatus of this same system. 

Second, it's an escalation of the open conflict between Republi-fascists spearheaded by Abbott, and Democrats led by Biden. This conflict is not over whether to have a militarized border and the mass deportation of migrants, but over how intensely and viciously these will be enforced. This conflict concentrates deeper differences over the fascist remaking of society.

As the New York Times wrote, this military base “signals Texas’ commitment to a security role that previously belonged almost exclusively to the federal government.” “Commitment to security,” my ass, one might say! This is an act of usurping the rule of law in the service of fascist mobilization.

So far Biden and the Democrats have “opposed” the fascist challenges mainly with lawsuits, some of which are working their way through fascist-dominated courts. We don't know what will happen if the federal government decides to openly confront the fascist defiance of their authority. Both sides control and lead large numbers of heavily armed and well-organized forces. Things could quickly accelerate to an unprecedented conflict, by accident or design. 

The fascists are moving on other fronts, too. After recent fascist rallies in three border towns, one participant was quoted saying, “We’re illegal hunters. I’ve hunted a lot in my life, but I’ve never actually hunted people, and that’s what we’re doing now.” On March 5, a Texas law takes effect that enables any law enforcement officer in the state to arrest any person they claim to have "probable cause" to believe has entered the U.S. illegally.

Extreme Danger... Revolutionary Potential

This entire situation is intensifying. The sharpening divides among the rulers are part of a larger fight over the whole direction of society... a fight which holds both extreme dangers and revolutionary potential. But that potential can only be seized if there are growing forces for revolution acting now—bringing alive what is happening, why and the reality that there is a whole different way the world can be. In a revolutionary society, the masses of migrants fleeing their desperate conditions would not be demonized, hated, terrorized and exploited but treated as human beings... welcomed as a great resource to building a society that is moving to uproot exploitation and oppression, and the imperialist domination of the world.

In light of that, we are ending this article with the following from a social media dispatch in which the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian breaks down why this revolution is more possible now:

Everything will very likely be coming to a head and coming up for grabs this year, 2024, with the presidential election this year a sharp focus of the fight between the dominating ruling class parties—Democrats and Republicans—a fight that is very likely to break all out of the bounds of the “normal way” they exercise power over the people, and keep their whole murderous system going.

This kind of deep division—and especially this bitter antagonism among the powers-that-be—has not been seen in this country since the time of the Civil War way back in the 1860s.

This is not a time to be siding with one group of oppressors or another. This is a rare time—a very rare opening—a chance that may come only once in a lifetime—a chance to take advantage of the deep divisions among the ruling oppressors and go after their whole system, with the aim of bringing the whole thing down, and putting something much better in its place.

This rare time must not be squandered—wasted and thrown away. It must be actively and urgently seized on—to bring about a truly emancipating revolution.

Stop The Demonization And Deportations Of Immigrants And The Militarization Of The Border!

We Don't Have An Immigration Problem; We Have An Imperialism Problem!

We Need And We Demand: Revolution, For A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System.