Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order last week that helps law enforcement return illegals to the border. This is in direct defiance of President Biden’s welcome mat plan for what the White House prefers to call “irregular” migration.
“I have authorized the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to begin returning illegal immigrants to the border to stop this criminal enterprise endangering our communities,” Abbott said. “As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.”
Abbott’s executive order comes at a time of historic illegal crossings at the border. There were more than 239,000 illegal crossings in May alone, and Abbott said that there were 5,000 illegal immigrant apprehensions in Texas alone over Independence Day weekend.
“While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border,” Abbott said in a statement. “The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.”
Abbott has taken a number of dramatic measures to cope with the flood of illegal immigrants hitting the state, including busing illegals to Washington, D.C. Last year, the state increased resources and law enforcement to the border under the still-ongoing Operation Lone Star in order to arrest those entering the country illegally.
A recent reported six-day total of 26,000 illegal immigrant arrests were made in the Del Rio, Big Bend, El Paso, Loredo, and Rio Grande Valley sectors. This represented more than half the total 40,000 estimated to have been apprehended across the entire southwestern border. About 70 percent of those apprehended were reportedly single adults.
Despite a judge stopping President Biden from lifting the Covid-19 pandemic-era expulsion policy Title 42, his administration is failing on enforcing the measure as 65 percent of the 26,000 migrants managed to avoid being deported under the health rule.
Biden’s “border czar,” Vice President Kamala Harris, attacked Abbott in a Sunday television interview over his executive order tapping state officers for migrant arrests. She hammered Abbott’s accusations that the White House is responsible for the migrant crisis, suggesting he “focus on solutions” rather than criticize the administration.
“I would suggest that so-called leaders focus on solutions instead of attacks if they really are concerned about a problem, and that includes on the issue of immigration,” said Harris.
Harris herself has done little in her role as border czar to solve the illegal immigration crisis. The vice president maintained that solutions to illegal immigration would include “passing a pathway for citizenship,” a long-held goal for Democrats.
Even with Abbott’s executive order, some Texas counties have declared the illegal immigrant crisis an “invasion” and urged Governor Abbott to do the same. This would give the state greater powers, including returning illegal immigrants into Mexico itself. A few House Republicans have called for an invasion declaration as well.
Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas) said, “We are dealing with an invasion. Texans are dying from fentanyl pouring into our communities. Our ranchers are getting overrun, their livestock are getting out, their fences are getting cut. Our communities are dealing with that. So, all of these leaders in the counties in south Texas are asking for is that Texas step up, and we go do what the federal government refuses to do.”
Abbott has so far not issued such a declaration, but his executive order did mention the word “invasion,” saying the Biden administration has “abandoned the covenant, in Article IV, § 4 of the U.S. Constitution, that ‘[t]he United States…shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion.'”
While Governor Abbott does all he can to protect his state’s border, the solution to immigration rests with the President and Congress. The Constitution of the United States gives significant authority to the president over immigration, but it gave Congress broad power over immigration too. It’s time for both to stop kicking the can down the road, and once and for all solve the immigration issues plaguing our nation.
