August 13, 2021

Dear Friend, 

It has been a great week spending time back home in West Texas – in God's Country. In case you missed it, I traveled across Lubbock, Jones, Taylor, Young, and Throckmorton counties to meet with fellow West Texans to discuss the latest challenges facing our oil and gas producers, farmers, ranchers, law enforcement officers, and community leaders. To ensure you are receiving the latest updates from me, I encourage you to visit my website, and follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 

At the Taylor County Courthouse in Abilene, I held a press conference and later appeared on Newsmax’s Spicer & Co., following my visit to Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas to discuss the ongoing situation as illegal immigrants are being released from detention and into the greater Abilene community.

Click here or the image below for the full press conference.

Click here or the image below for the full interview on Spicer & Co.

I sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson demanding answers about reports of illegal immigrants being released from local detention facilities in West Texas and transported to the Abilene community. I also joined KTAB News to discuss the situation, as well as how President Biden’s failed immigration policies have caused the crisis raging on our southern border. Learn more about it here and here. 

Click here or the image below for the full KTAB interview.

It was great to see the Corn Producers Association of Texas in my Lubbock district office — we discussed the devastating effect President Biden’s super-charged death tax would have on family farms and other issues impacting corn farmers in West Texas and across America.

Kicking off the day in the Key City, I joined Abilene realtors to discuss tax, property rights, and infrastructure. My message: The eviction moratorium is a government taking of American’s private property, the supercharged death tax is unfair and un-American, and, unfortunately, the Senate infrastructure bill only invests one of every four tax dollars in core infrastructure. Less government and more freedom is the solution to America’s recovery and long-term growth.

I also enjoyed getting to visit with the Reed Beverage team at their Abilene distribution center. Texas independent beer distributors help foster a more competitive beer market and bring economic growth to local communities across West Texas!

I’m thankful for West Texas teachers, like my friends in Hawley ISD, who were willing to go back to the classroom during the pandemic out of love for our community and kids. Whether it’s COVID restrictions or curriculum, I will continue to fight to keep Washington from interfering in our local schools.

In Young County, I visited with energy producers and community leaders to discuss the state of our oil and gas industry. 80% of oil and gas produced in the U.S. comes from independent oil and gas companies. The Dem’s Green New Deal agenda would devastate West Texas and rural economies across the county, as well as undermine America’s prosperity and energy independence.

Agriculture producers personify the values and grit America was founded on. Thank you to the Brown, McCartney, and Bellah families for joining me in a discussion on how Biden’s death tax proposal would devastate their family ranches in Throckmorton and family-owned operations throughout America.

To conclude a productive week of meetings in West Texas, I had the opportunity to attend a law enforcement lunch with local sheriffs from across West Texas. We discussed the Democrat’s efforts to defund the police and how President Biden’s Border Crisis is wreaking havoc on rural communities.

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As always, it is an honor and privilege to represent you in Congress. Feel free to forward this newsletter to our fellow West Texans and encourage them to sign up here for this weekly update.

Your friend and fellow West Texan,

Jodey C. Arrington
Member of Congress