Former Congressman mocks fellow Republicans’ fear at US border: ‘They were expecting the Battle of Mogadishu’

Former Texas Republican Congressman Will Hurd has written that some of his GOP colleagues were fearful of visiting the US border and some towns in Mexico as they expected an environment similar to a warzone.

In his new book, American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Things Done, Mr Hurd writes that “to correct misconceptions about the border, I brought congressional colleagues and administration officials down for tours of the border. Some were nervous when I took them into Mexico. Many were expecting the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, with shootouts in the streets like Black Hawk Down”.

In 1993, the US conducted a catastrophic raid in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu against a local warlord who was attacking and killing UN peacekeepers. The raid led to a firefight lasting 18 hours in which hundreds of Somalis and 19 Americans lost their lives.

Militia members then paraded the bodies of Americans in the streets. The images gained a lot of attention in the US and the setback was a monumental moment in Bill Clinton’s presidency and US foreign policy as a whole. The event inspired a book and the 2001 film Black Hawk Down.

When former President Donald Trump announced that he was a candidate in the 2016 election, he said that Mexico was “sending people that have lots of problems” such as drug smugglers and “rapists”.

Mr Hurd noted that crime rates in border towns tend to be lower than in other areas of the US. Axios found that as violent crime rose in 2020 across the US, the rate remained below the national average in the 11 biggest cities along the border with Mexico.

Mr Hurd announced that he would leave the House in 2019, at a time when he was the only Black Republican House member. He represented Texas’ 23rd district between San Antonio and El Paso. Unlike many of his GOP colleagues, Mr Hurd was willing to publicly criticise Mr Trump, especially the then-President’s racist attacks on certain Democrats.

Mr Hurd also noted in American Reboot that the bipartisan Uniting and Securing America Act, which would overhaul the immigration system, failed despite being narrower in focus than the huge proposals put forward under President Barack Obama and George W Bush, which also never made it through the legislative process.

“Its failure reflects all the problems with Washington — appealing to the fringes rather than the middle, the lack of willingness to be honest and do the right thing, the failure to get audio and video to match, and the inability to recognize how more unites us than divides us,” Mr Hurd wrote.