Gov. Abbott To Deploy National Guards To Combat The Escalating “Crisis” Due To Biden’s Immigration Policies
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ratcheted up his criticism of the Biden administration’s policies which has triggered a crisis along the US-Mexico border.
The Republican governor said over the weekend that, in particular, Texas will deploy National Guard troops to help curb the escalating crisis at the border with a surge of immigrants from Central and South America looking to enter the United States following more relaxed rules at the southern border.
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“Today Texas launched Operation Lone Star to respond to the border crisis,” Governor Abbott said on Saturday.
“It deploys National Guard + DPS Officers + air, ground, marine, & tactical border security assets to deny Mexican Cartels & smugglers the ability to move drugs & people into Texas,” he added.
Today Texas launched Operation Lone Star to respond to the border crisis.
It deploys Nat'l Guard + DPS Officers + air, ground, marine, & tactical border security assets to deny Mexican Cartels & smugglers the ability to move drugs & people into Texas.https://t.co/r68J2laDpH
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 7, 2021
He added that Operation Lone Star also seeks to “combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas,” which the GOP governor said has been amplified by the border policies of the administration under Democrat President Joe Biden.
Abbott: Texas supports “legal immigration”
“The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” Abbott continued.
“Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis,” he added.
President Biden has maintained that “there is no crisis” at the US-Mexico border despite the surge of thousands of asylum seekers in the country’s borders. In January alone, 6,000 migrants aged 16 and 17 were reportedly caught entering illegally.
The denial also came as hundreds of those released under the Obama-era’s “catch and release program,” reinstated by Biden, tested positive for coronavirus.
Border patrol officials are predicting that there will be 117,000 unaccompanied children arriving at the border this year — the highest number in two decades according to experts.
Officials also noted nearly 400,000 people crossed the southern border between October 2020 through February.
Former president Donald Trump already earlier slammed Biden for a “spiraling tsunami” at the southern border amid the surge in migrant numbers as the new administration’s immigration policies are centered on overturning Trump-era immigration policies.
“When I left office, we had achieved the most secure border in our country’s history. Under Biden, it will soon be worse, more dangerous, and more out of control than ever before,” Trump said. “The spiraling tsunami at the border is overwhelming local communities … our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden.”
Biden to implement “rapid release” of migrants
Meanwhile, Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier said the situation at the southern border is just a “challenge.”
“The men and women of the Department of Homeland Security are working around the clock seven days a week to ensure that we do not have a crisis at the border — that we manage the challenge, as acute as the challenge is,” Mayorkas said.
Separately, the Biden administration is moving to convert Texas migrant centers to rapid processing centers in a bid to release detained families into the country in 72 hours or less.
Reports said based on a court filing, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wants families to continue to be detained at a 2,400-bed detention center in Karnes City and an 839-bed detention center in Dilley in Texas, but that the government now only intends to hold those families at the centers for “three days or less” before being released to communities.
