Houston Newsmakers: Governor blames Biden for border issues

Governor Greg Abbott (R) Texas (KPRC)

“The Biden Administration does not care about those ranchers, those homeowners, the people whose lives are being disrupted. He does not care about Americans. He cares more about people who are not from this country.”

Those were the words of Texas Governor Greg Abbott while he was on the Texas-Mexico border last week to highlight the dramatic increase in migrants making their way into Texas.

Among the governor’s other points:

-Border Issues are the Federal Government’s Job

-ICE needs more funding

-Covid vaccines need to be prioritized for Border Patrol Agents.

See the Governor’s full comments here.

Immigration attorney Charles Foster says “the numbers are up but that has more to do with conditions in Mexico and Central America.” Foster is the Chairman of Foster LLC which specializes in U.S. and Global Immigration. He is a guest on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall and has several suggestions for improving the short term and long term immigration problem.

Also on the program is Parker Sheffy, the Supervising Attorney for the University of Houston Law Center Immigration Clinic. Sheffy says there is a problem but that this one is receiving an inordinate amount of attention for one reason. I think it’s an easy distraction point and one that’s been politicized heavily for the last four years so it’s an easy place to go and point.”

Foster and Sheffy discuss more in this week’s Houston Newsmakers EXTRA.

Small business owners react to relaxed COVD restrictions and possible minimum wage increase

Arnaldo Richards is co-owner of Picos Restaurant and says he has no intention of relaxing COVID rules in his restaurant, regardless of the governor declaring no mask mandate and no capacity restrictions. “We’re doing the right thing! Nothing has changed. We’re keeping the social distancing,” he said. “This 100% to us means nothing.” Fern Carty Dawkins is a Smoothie King Franchisee and says any talk about increasing the minimum wage will certainly necessitate changes in the way she does business. “These business models are built, when you consider the cost of goods and your build out and everything else, they build in the minimum wage as part of the cost of operating,” she said. “So certainly a change to 15 is going to impact businesses like mine.”

More Information:

Charles Foster, Chairman, Foster LLC

· Website: https://www.fosterglobal.com/attorney/charles-foster/

· Twitter: @Fosterllp

Parker Sheffy, Supervising Attorney, UH Law Center, Immigration Clinic

· Website: https://www.law.uh.edu/clinic/immi.asp

· Twitter: @UHLAW

Fern Carty Dawkins, Smoothie King Franchisee

· Website: https://www.franchise.org/franchise-information/people-news-events/qa-with-smoothie-queen-fern-carty-dawkins

· Website: https://www.shesaidsheledsheis.com/new-page-66

Arnaldo Richards, Co-owner Picos Restaurant

· Website: https://www.picos.net/

· Twitter: @picosrestaurant