Polinotes - Analysis & Research

Analysis and Research on Border Issues by Martin Paredes

Tue. Apr 30th, 2024
Papers

Paper No. 18: The True Cost Of Living In El Paso, Texas (October 1, 2022) White Paper

Martin Paredes

Each political season there are three major topics of discussion about El Paso. The first is that property taxes are one of the highest in the country. The second is that government entities tack on fees as hidden taxes, like the storm water fees. The last topic is that El Paso is a low wage town. This paper compares El Paso to eight other similar cities, taking into account the population, the geographic location of the city, the political party in charge and what it costs for a family to live in that city. The cities are ranked against El Paso in terms of housing costs – including the tax burden – and the cost to own a vehicle as well as the costs to shop at the local Walmart.

Papers

Paper No. 17: Operation Hold The Line, How El Paso Spawned Today’s Failed Immigration Strategy (February 9, 2022) Policy Paper

Martin Paredes

A former Border Patrol chief turned congressman is the architect of today’s failed immigration policies. Silvestre Reyes’s Operation Hold the Line operation led to today’s official immigration strategy of “prevention through deterrence”. It is a strategy that failed then and continues to fail to address the problem of irregular migration. Not only did it fail to deter undocumented migration from entering the United States, but Reyes’ operation was “successful” in one thing only – keeping El Paso’s gardeners, maids and nannies from going to work while doing nothing for keeping undocumented migrants from crossing the border.