MISSION (WBAP/KLIF) – Governor Greg Abbott visited Mission, Texas on Tuesday to discuss the state’s response to what he referred to as an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the Texas-Mexico border.
The Governor took an aerial tour of the border and received a briefing from members of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the National Border Patrol Council, and the Texas National Guard.
“The Biden Administration has created a crisis at our southern border through open border policies that give the green light to dangerous cartels and other criminal activity,” said Governor Abbott. “Border security is the federal government’s responsibility, but the State of Texas will not allow the administration’s failures to endanger the lives of innocent Texans. Instead, Texas is stepping up to fill the gaps left open by the federal government to secure the border, apprehend dangerous criminals, and keep Texans safe.”
Governor Abbott insisted that the situation at the southern border is a direct result of the Biden Administration’s open border policies. He said that over 800 criminal aliens have been apprehended in Texas this year, including sex offenders and gang members, and many of those individuals had been deported before. According to the Governor, cartels are ramping up trafficking and smuggling along the border and overwhelming border patrol resources.
The Governor condemned the Biden Administration for enriching the cartels with “open border policies” and for failing to provide vaccines to members of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Governor Abbott also noted that the the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for detaining, testing, and quarantining anyone that comes across the border, and called on the Biden Administration to increase the amount of ICE facilities and provide more funding to the agency to allow them to do their jobs.
Earlier this week, the Governor and DPS launched Operation Lone Star, which will deploy air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.
Listen to Clayton Neville’s story below:
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