Read The Governor's Wife for Free Online Page B

and the children, they always have the open sores and many illnesses from the river—hepatitis, dysentery, cholera, tuberculosis, even dengue fever. You have had your shots?"
    "My shots?"
    Lindsay Bonner had seen poverty before, in the rural counties and the inner cities. But she had never before seen anything like this. Colonia Ángeles looked like a scene from one of those "feed the children" commercials on Sunday morning television. But this wasn't Guatemala or Africa. This was America.
    "How did all this come to be?"
    "These colonias, they began appearing along the river back in the fifties and sixties. But during the eighties and nineties, the population exploded with the immigration boom, some say because Reagan granted amnesty and citizenship to the Mexicans already here, so more followed, also hoping for citizenship—if not for them, at least for their children born here. They know the law, too."
    "My husband, he calls those children 'anchor babies.' "
    "Yes. He does. Anyway, this is flood plain land, worthless for regular development. So the owners sold off small lots to Mexican immigrants, just pieces of dirt, with no roads or utilities. They built their homes with whatever scrap material they could salvage, piece by piece, what the sociologists call 'incremental construction.' Not exactly the American dream, as you can see. But it is all they can afford."
    "In Austin, these places would be bulldozed as unfit for human occupancy."
    "This is not Austin, Mrs. Bonner. This is the border. Travel up and down this river, and you will see nothing but colonias outside the cities, two thousand at last count. The state says four hundred thousand people live in the colonias , but I think there are many more, perhaps one million. How can the state know for certain when the federal government cannot even get an accurate count for the census?"
    "So they live without running water, sewer …?"
    "Electricity."
    "I thought the state had funded services for the colonias? "
    "Yes, ten years ago, the state issued five hundred million in bonds to provide utilities to the colonias , and about half now have them. This colonia does not."
    "So when will these people get utilities?"
    "They will not. The money has run out. Most of these people will die without ever having turned on a light or flushed a toilet."
    "We need more money."
    "But, Mrs. Bonner, your husband vetoed more money for the colonias ."
    "He did? Why?"
    "He said the federal government should pay for the utilities since these people are illegal immigrants. Squatters, I think he called them."
    "They're human beings. And they shouldn't have to live like this."
    "Tell your husband."
    "I will."
    "But to be fair to the governor, we need billions, more money than the State of Texas can provide, to keep up with the people coming across the river and the children born here. The borderlands, it is both the poorest and the fastest growing population in all of America. That is why we must count them for the census, so the borderlands can get its share of federal funds."
    "But they're not citizens."
    "That does not matter. The census counts everyone living in America, legal or not. Funds and seats in the House are divvied up by population, not citizenship. If only these people will fill out the forms and be counted, Texas will get three, maybe four more seats in Congress and billions more in federal aid. Each of these residents is worth fifteen hundred dollars, if we can get them counted."
    "My husband wants to send these people back to Mexico, but he sends me down here to get them to fill out the census reports so Texas can benefit from their presence here?"
    "Odd, is it not? But we need federal money to do what the state cannot afford to do. The problem is, we are asking these people to come out of the shadows and be counted while ICE conducts raids right here on the border. They do not trust the government. And, of course, they did not receive the census forms."
    "Why not?"
    "No