Abbott told Bartiromo that he had gone to the border last week and had spoken with border patrol officers who said that they had warned the Joe Biden administration that its new border policies would lead to a “massive surge in illegal immigration.”
He also told Bartiromo that officers believe the number of migrants arriving at the border will only increase in the coming months.
Of course, it will only increase.
Why wouldn’t people in Central America walk over, or even pay a transport fee, if they could come to the United States and expect to be welcome with open arms, free health care and economic support? It is a totally predictable result.
In the interview, Abbott pointed out that “the Border Patrol officers told me that the Biden administration and policies, they are enriching, they are empowering the drug cartels in Mexico, who make money off of the people that they assist in smuggling into the state of Texas.”
“The cartels make money off of these migrants that you and your viewers see on TV,” Abbott said.
Abbott went on to say that border officers told him that there have already been about 110,000 apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley this year, surpassing the 90,000 total in the sector from last year.
And of those 110,000, Abbott said officers found 800 criminal aliens who have previously been arrested and deported from the United States, including 78 sex offenders and 62 gang members, which include MS-13 gangs.
“In response to the surge in migrants and cartel smuggling, Abbott said that Texas launched Operation Lone Star. The operation deploys National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety officers to help fill in the gaps along the border through which cartels smuggle migrants while border officers are occupied handling the surge in migrants at other major points across the border. Abbott said the operation works ‘to prevent the cartels from bringing across the border the most dangerous criminal elements, as well as the opioids that they’re trying to smuggle across the border’.”
Abbott also brought up the issue of undocumented migrants who arrive at the border infected with covid-19, putting further strain on an already-oversaturated health system.
“The governor said that he was unable to give data on the number of those migrants who arrived at the Texas border and tested positive for coronavirus because the Biden administration has ‘refused and failed’ to give those numbers to the state,” the report said.
“We expect that data and we expect the Biden administration to step up and assist the state of Texas in being able to respond to that imported challenge, imported only because of the change in policies by the Biden administration,” Abbot said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump clearly understood the risk of an open border. Apparently, President Biden does not, or at least the people around him do not.
As someone who came to the United States legally, I can understand that people want a better life or to pursue their dreams up north.
I get it. I am sympathetic to their intentions and am not anti-immigrant.
But at the same time, these migrants need to understand that they have to wait their turn and do it legally.
The biggest problem at the border is the chaotic nature of the whole thing. No country in the world can tolerate thousands of people violating their immigration process.
Governor Abbott is right. President Biden’s action are helping the criminal elements move people to the border. This must be stopped, and Governor Abbott is ready to take the Biden administration on head on.
SILVIO CANTO, JR. is a Cuban-born U.S. citizen who teaches English at a north Texas college. He is the author of the book “Cubanos in Wisconsin” and has a daily online radio program and blog dealing with U.S. and Latin American politics, as well as sports and historic events, and is a regular contributor to American Thinker.
