Two Tragedies Caused By Horrifically Poor Decisions

Two very different stories have dominated headlines over the last few weeks - dramatic tragedies that did not have to end in heartbreak and death, and yet they did. 

In both situations, initial hysterical media reports and reactionary partisans blamed Federal officials, government failures, and cutbacks for most of the fallout and loss of life. Upon further review it seems clear that if rational decisions had been made by key figures involved in these two quite different stories, dramatic and gut-wrenching mass deportations could have been avoided in one case and horrific mass drownings could have been avoided in the other. 

The ongoing roundup and deportation of tens of thousands of illegal aliens all over America, highlighted by violent demonstrations, dangerous political hyperbole, and highly controversial new detention centers, was the first of these stories. The 100-year flood that devastated central Texas earlier this month and killed at least 135 people was, of course, the other. 

There may be better examples of kicking the can down the road while ignoring the painful consequences of yesterday's hard-earned lessons, but I certainly don’t know what they are. 

While our country has been struggling with the issue of illegal immigration for generations, there have been laws and legal immigration processes on the books for quite a while. In fact, they were detailed in legislation signed into law by a former President Bill Clinton, who was adamant that illegal aliens ignoring our laws be quickly and severely punished. 

"We are a nation of immigrants,” he said, addressing the issue some 30 years ago. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it."  

During his 1995 State of the Union address, President Clinton called for speeding up the deportation of illegal aliens who committed crimes, improving the identification of undocumented workers, and demanding respect for and adherence to, the legal process. Clinton stressed the importance of the United States controlling our own borders. "Our country was built by immigrants,” he said. “But it was built also by people who obeyed the law".  

The Clinton administration and a bipartisan Congress established policies to improve border security, protect American jobs through workplace enforcement, deport individuals who had committed crimes or were eligible for repatriation. 

Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act 29 years ago, and it increased potential punishment for immigrants, regardless of their legal status, and expanded the types of offenses would see offenders kicked out of our country for good. 

It was that same law President Donald Trump was successfully enforcing when he left office in January of 2021. It was also that same law that President Joe Biden proceeded to ignore and bypass for his first three years in the White House.  

During this stand down we saw approximately 15 million immigrants, some documented, some not, pour into our country hungry and homeless. 

It came to an end only after Biden was inundated with pleas from Democrat mayors and governors from coast to coast to stem the tide of the waves of humanity bankrupting their communities and sucking up resources meant for needy Americans. 

Only at that point did Biden go back to Trump's position and actually start obeying the law that he, as a senator, helped get passed in 1996. 

So please understand that where we are now and the dramatic actions underway to restore order and respect for the law are a direct result of the lawlessness and premeditated dereliction of duty of the previous administration. 

What is past is prologue is an important concept as we continue to assess the tragedy of the Guadalupe River floods. We would do well to take note of the cost of ignoring history. 

Dick Eastland was well known throughout Kerr County, Texas as a leading advocate for a better flood warning system and as a member of the local River Authority Board. He was also the owner and operator of Camp Mystic, the riverside sleepover camp for girls that had been in operation for almost a century. Camp Mystic lost 27 campers and staff, Eastland included, in the most recent floods. 

We say most recent floods because, when discussing the Guadalupe River, one must be precise. Dangerous floods have occurred on the river for as far back as anyone can remember. One such flood, in 1985, required a rescue by helicopter of Eastland's then pregnant wife. Two years later10 campers were killed at a nearby campground when yet another flash flood swept through the area.  

Eastland was not only a flood expert, he was a flood survivor, which makes his eventual fate an even more confounding contradiction. 

Why did this man, and so many others in Kerr County, curse the historic flood danger and yet do so little to personally guarantee the safety of staff and guests?  

The banks of the Guadalupe are lush and accessible, and the slow flow of the river is safe and inviting much of the time. That said, virtually all the stakeholders in the devastated properties knew firsthand what strong rains could bring. 

Very few were timely or aggressive with evacuation plans until it was much too late. 

Once heavy rain began, and continued for more than two hours, Eastland and others should have evacuated everyone to higher ground. Nobody needed confirmation that deadly flooding was coming. Memories of what most had survived previously should have been good enough to get the ball rolling.  

The notion that Camp Mystic housed its youngest, and most vulnerable, campers closest to the most flood-prone areas is absolutely astonishing. 

To his credit, Eastland died trying to save campers whose lives were put in jeopardy by poor planning and a horrific lack of preparation. Had he not been killed in the flood, he might have been charged with criminal neglect not only in the way he delayed evacuation that night, but his deliberate choices to place the most vulnerable campers in the most flood-prone cabin on the property. 

It was not the lack of a FEMA response team, or a short-staffed NOAA office, or any real or imagined bureaucratic cutback or budget cut that cost lives at Camp Mystic. It was poor choices, poor planning, and a willful rejection of lessons learned by decades of precursive flooding that did it. 

Dick Eastland lived the prologue, but he and many others died because he didn't learn from the experience.