Mexico pays back some water: Trump deserves all credit

President Donald Trump is getting a lot of flak these days from many corners, but at the same time, fair’s fair, the guy deserves all the credit for getting Mexico to pay us the water it owes.

No other president, dating back to 1944 when the U.S./ Mexico Water Treaty was signed, has bothered to play tough with Mexico.

They hurt us by withholding our water; we did nothing in response.

If the fat cats in D.C. had enough of everything, what bother was it to them if South Texas was drying up, courtesy of both a drought and Mexico’s noncompliance concerning the ‘’44 treaty?

All previous U.S. presidents did nothing — zip, zero, nada — to enforce the 1944 treaty, and no congressional majority did anything to ramp up the pressure against our friends to the south – pay us the water you owe.

Until Trump did it this term, in the spring of 2025.

The Blessing, Water

For the help this president provided in pressuring Mexico to give us our water, all of us who live in the Rio Grande Valley should be grateful.

For the moment, forget everything else Trump is doing, which some people do like and don’t like. Fact is, without water, we have nothing. And when the two reservoirs that water South Texas, Amistad and Falcon, drop below 20 percent, as they did earlier this year, with no rain in sight, we should all start to worry.

The rhetoric coming from local elected officials has always been, municipalities have nothing to worry about. If anything, ag and citrus will run out of water, but residents, commercial endeavors, will always have access to it.

The fact that Valley farmers and citrus growers were suffering, are suffering, going out of business, apparently that never mattered to the powers that be in D.C.

Of course, you have to envision a Valley without ag or citrus, and it’s not half as pretty as it is with the greenery, the sweet smell of orange blossoms in March.

Plus, those industries, ag and citrus, provide how many jobs important to the local economy?

Too many to count.

Since the water treaty between the U.S. and Mexico was struck in 1944, whenever Mexico would fail to live up to its water obligation with the U.S., which affects this side of the border from Del Rio south, the president in the White House — no matter who it was, Democrat or Republican — did nothing.

We even had two Texas residents in the White House, George H. W. Bush and his son of lesser intellect, the fake WMD guy, George W.

Yet, even they did nothing to get Mexico to pay the water it owed the U.S., Texas, for so many years.

Never mind that the solution to the problem was there all along.

The Hammer Drops

The water treaty is broken down into five-year cycles, the most recent of which actually ends this month.

Historically, what Mexico would do unless it had a tropical storm or hurricane and was forced to discharge water into the Rio Grande (from its six tributaries) just to relieve flood conditions south of the border, would be to hold back most of the water it owed us until the five-year cycle was about to end.

Then around October, they would give us a token amount of water, just to say Mexico was in some form of treaty compliance, and move on into the next five-year cycle, shorting us on water all over again.

This cycle went on for approximately 81 years.

Not one president did anything to enforce the 1944 treaty, Republican or Democrat.

The solution was simple, which is what Trump did earlier this year.

East of the Continental Divide, water from Mexico basically feeds the Rio Grande, the two reservoirs, and our needs on this side of the border.

West of the Continental Divide, water from U.S. tributaries basically provides Mexico’s water needs.

Since 1944, the U.S. has always lived up to its end of the bargain. Even when our water sources were low, our farmers and municipalities out west short of water, the U.S. would always deliver the water it promised.

Mexico never did. These are simple facts that anyone can research.

Just ask “Sonny” Hinojosa, who served as Watermaster for Hidalgo County Irrigation District #2 for 28 years, going back to 1993, when NAFTA and the entire border region were ready to take off.

Before his stint with #2, Hinojosa worked with the river watermaster for eight years. He is still employed with #2, but no longer serves as GM. In a way, he has become lead “Water Advocate” for the Rio Grande Valley.

Hinojosa will tell anyone who wants to listen, with regard to Trump’s actions earlier this year:

“This is the first time that the Colorado (river) was used as leverage for the Rio Grande.”

Earlier this year, Mexico wanted the U.S. to help it with some water project it had planned for Tijuana.

Trump, already briefed about the Valley water shortage, said, no.

Many in the U.S. media painted the story as the bad old U.S. bully trying to hurt the poor in Tijuana.

No, it was simply using some leverage to get Mexico to pay the water it owes the U.S. on this side of the Continental Divide, which obviously includes the Rio Grande Valley.

Trump knew that Mexico was ignoring the 1944 Water Treaty, was told by his Ag Commissioner and U.S. Representative Monica De La Cruz (R-TX) how water west of the Continental Divide could be used as leverage, and lo and behold, he actually acted in a way beneficial to us, based on the information at hand.

This wasn’t rocket science. Yet, again, at the risk of sounding repetitive, no other president had bothered to stand up for this side of the river’s water concerns.

Until Trump came along and forced Mexico’s hand. Since that bit of deal making was stuck this spring, Mexico has released more water into the Rio Grande.

Mexico will still come short of what it owes when the final tally is counted at the end of this month, which ends another five-year cycle, but at least the RGV got 281,436 acre feet of water this year that we never would have received if Trump hadn’t followed through and applied some leverage to Mexico.

Why no previous president ever did anything to help us with our water needs, who knows.

A cynic could say — Nothing in it for them.

But Trump did get us some water, with a promise from Mexico to play nicer when the next five-year cycle begins, and for that, he deserves the credit.