The lie told by Greg Abbot concerning border safety.

Governor Greg Abbott's statement that “ISIS is running through a border made porous by Barack Obama’s policies” was criticized as “ridiculous” by Politifact Texas. I agree with Politifact Texas' claim that this statement was completely false because of the proof presented by them in this article. For example, Politifact Texas asked the Texas Department of Public Safety for information regarding ISIS activity at the border, and a DPS spokesman told them that they didn’t have that sort of information. In addition, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Marsha Catron, told Politifact Texas that “DHS does not have any credible intelligence that terrorist organization are planning to attempt to cross the southwest border.” These statements prove that government intelligence disagrees with Abbot’s claim. However, in order to avoid bias, Politifact Texas also asked the same question to non-government experts who replied in a similar manner. For instance, Victor M. Manjarrez, “director of the National Center for Border Security & Immigration at the University of Texas at El Paso,” told Politifact Texas that claims of terrorist activity in the southwest border have been discredited. Politifact Texas also found evidence that contradicted the idea of “a border made porous by Barack Obama's policies.” For example, Richard Nelson of the Center for Strategic & International Studies notified Politifact Texas that Obama has provided a large amount of resources directed for border security. Other federal figures, according to Politifact Texas, claim that these resources caused “apprehensions of individuals crossing the border without legal authority” to decrease; in 2015 the number of apprehensions at the border was 331,333 which is 39 percent lower than apprehensions in 2009. These facts provided by experts on immigration show that Greg Abbott's statement of the safety of the Texas border was not only false but irresponsible as well.

(OTHER WAYS OF FINDING ARTICLE:
Politifact Texas, "ISIS is running through a border made porous by Barack Obama's policies," http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2016/jun/17/greg-abbott/greg-abbott-makes-unfounded-claim-about-isis-runni/ )

Ted Cruz vs the people.

The article "Ted Cruz Locks Constituents Out, Won't Make Appointments," speaks of a recent event of voters denied access to speak to our Senator Ted Cruz. For a while now, constituents have been trying to reach Senator Ted Cruz in order to voice their thoughts concerning Donald Trump's nominees. Voters have attempted calling Cruz’ staffers but their calls go straight to voicemail; which is so full that staffers are “unable to accept new messages.” On January 24, 2017, a few people visited Ted Cruz’ Houston district office, and two people were allowed to talk to staff members only to be told that only “representatives of groups” could meet with Cruz and that they had to schedule an appointment by phone!
I believe this article is worth reading because it allows us as Texas citizens to get a better understanding of how our senator regards the people that he represents in Congress. One can conclude from this article that it can be next to impossible to speak to our Senators. If we allow our Senators or any elected candidate to get away with these actions of misrepresentation than they’ll be forced to believe that there is no problem to be solved.