Watch: Governor Abbott Says If Biden Punishes Border Patrol Agents, ‘I Will Hire’ Them To Defend Texas’ Border

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott made an offer to US Border Patrol agents saying the state of Texas will hire them should Democrat President Joe Biden fire them for doing their job of keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.

Abbott made the remark on Sunday after Biden warned mounted Border Patrol agents who were reportedly seen charging illegal immigrants in Del Rio, Texas that “those people will pay.”

The GOP governor told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that both Biden and his Department Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were “in dereliction of duty” because they have “abandoned any pretense of securing the sovereignty of either Texas or the United States by having these open border policies.”

Abbott also noted that “the illegal migration stopped” after his decision to deploy hundreds of state police officers to the border last week.

“That’s exactly what the Biden administration could do if they wanted to,” the Texas governor said. “But Chris, it’s the kind of thing that Texas is going to have to continue to do in addition to the other policies that you did not announce and that is, as opposed to catch and release, Texas has imposed a policy where we are going to arrest and jail people who come in across the border for trespassing into areas into the state of Texas.”

Abbott also defended his move to take the matters to his hand in terms of securing the Texas portion of the US-Mexico border to prevent the surge of illegal aliens in the state saying that he is doing so “because the Biden administration is refusing to do its duty to enforce the laws of the United States.”

He said this inaction by the federal government leaves Texas “in no position other than for us to step up and do what we have to do.”

The GOP governor then clarified the false reports circulating about the Border Patrol agents allegeding riding up on illegal immigrants trying to enter the US — citing the statements of the people themselves who took the said photos.

“First, they wouldn’t have been in that situation had the Biden administration enforced the immigration laws and secured the border in the first place,” Abbott said. 

“Second, as you know, Chris, the person who took those pictures said that the characterization that the Democrats have made about the Border Patrol using them as whips, whipping people, coming across the border is false. They were simply maneuvering horses,” he added.

“But the last thing I will tell you is what the President said going after the Border Patrol, who were risking their lives and working so hard to try to secure the border, if he takes any action against them whatsoever, I have worked side by side with those Border Patrol agents,” the Republican governor went on. 

“I want them to know something, if they are at risk of losing their job, got a president who is abandoning his duty to secure the border, you have a job in the state of Texas. I will hire you to help Texas secure our border,” Abbott added.

Earlier, the photographer behind the said images of Border Patrol agents on horseback with Haitian migrants noted that the pictures that triggered liberal outrage are being “misconstrued.” 

“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Paul Ratje said of the photos he took being used by Democrats and mainstream media to show Border Patrol agents using “whips” on the illegal immigrants trying to cross the border.

Ratje told KTSM, an NBC affiliate in Texas that the Border Patrol agent “was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.