A Latino organization responds to Gov. Reynolds' aid to Texas border — with a billboard

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa has a message for Gov. Kim Reynolds: "Governor, stop the hate."

The message — which now appears across six billboards in the Des Moines metro — is aimed at Reynolds' recent decision to send 109 Iowa National Guard soldiers to Texas and support the U.S.-Mexico border security initiative "Operation Lone Star."

A group of Iowa State Patrol officers also will be sent to Texas on Aug. 31 and help Texas state troopers, according to a news release.

The Iowa teams will offer aid in cases dealing with weapons, human trafficking and narcotics, the release said.

LULAC organizers are denouncing Reynolds' actions, saying her decision to send troops to the southern border is "political grandstanding." They also said the measures taken to keep migrants from crossing the border such as the 1,000-foot string of wrecking-ball-sized buoys with serrated metal plates in the Rio Grande — otherwise known as the "floating wall" — are "barbaric."

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for allegedly violating the law and installing the floating barrier. Abbott and lawyers for the state of Texas have insisted the governor acted under his legal authority to protect the state from an "invasion" caused by unlawful immigration and drug trafficking.

"The results of the unlawful barriers are devastating," LULAC, the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic organization that has more than 20 councils in Iowa, said in a news release. "Dead bodies caught in buoys; children’s bodies slashed by razor wire; and a pregnant woman having a miscarriage while ensnared in the barricades.

"In addition to the razor wire and buoys, state troopers have been ordered to push migrants back into the water as they attempted to reach U.S. soil and exercise their legal right to claim asylum. Troopers were also told not to give migrants water to drink."

In her news release, Reynolds said the Biden administration "has failed to respond to the crisis at the border" and "created one of the most significant national security and humanitarian crises of our generation." She said the administration is "blatantly ignoring" the impact it has on states, cities and people.

She is using COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act to send troops.

“Since the administration refuses to invest in securing the border and protecting its citizens, Texas has asked other states to help, and Iowa is ready and willing to assist," Reynolds said.

Reynolds traveled to the border last week with other governors to draw attention to the border situation.

"Texas has been ground zero for over two years because of the catastrophe Biden created at the southern border," Reynolds contended during her trip.

But Joe Henry, political director of LULAC of Iowa, disagreed with Reynolds' characterizations. That's why the organization launched the billboard campaign, he said.

Henry told the Des Moines Register the billboards are meant to draw attention to Reynolds' "hateful actions," which he says speaks volumes to Latinos in Iowa. Her actions tell them, he says, "that we're not wanted here and that we will never be accepted as Iowans."

The billboards featuring LULAC's "Governor, stop the hate" message will be up for two weeks. Henry says his organization has plans to put up more billboard signs with different messages. Plans for protests and to boost voter participation also are underway.

In a statement Tuesday night, Kollin Crompton, Reynolds’ deputy communications director, said, “Since 2020, Iowa has seen a 500% increase in fentanyl seizures, 100% increase in meth seizures and a 35% increase in drug-related deaths. In just three months earlier this year, the Iowa Department of Public Safety seized 27,450 fentanyl pills, 363 pounds of meth, and 72 pounds of cocaine. This is the harsh reality of President Biden’s abject failure to protect the sovereignty of this country. What’s happening at the border is now in our own backyard, and Gov. Reynolds refuses to stand by while illegal immigrants, illicit drugs and dangerous cartels put Iowans at risk. Protecting Iowans at home starts 1,000 miles away at the border, and Texas shouldn’t have to do it alone. These billboards are a slap in the face to families who’ve lost loved ones to fentanyl and the Iowa National Guard soldiers who protected our country.”

Henry said he believes that the issues rising at the U.S.-Mexico border are a "federal issue," and "sending military down there is not what the state should be doing."

"We are a country of immigrants," he said. "We should have a system that helps people fleeing violence. We should provide more judges, not military personnel down at the border. Clearly, things need to be done to help people fleeing violence."

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa. USA Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 'Stop the hate' billboards put up in response to Reynolds' Texas aid