Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state troopers to begin stopping and inspecting commercial vehicles coming across the United States’ southern border and said bus charters would be offered to take illegal migrants straight to the promoters of open-border policies in Washington, D.C., among other measures.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Abbott announced a set of “unprecedented” actions to curb what is expected to be a major influx of migrants coming to Texas due to the Biden administration’s lifting of the Title 42 expulsion policy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the policy would end on May 23.
Abbott cited Biden administration officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who estimated that as a result of the policy reversal, as many as 18,000 illegal immigrants will be coming to America’s southern border every day. That’s more than double the number of people the border agents are handling now. That would be 100,000 people per week, or half a million people potentially crossing each month.
To address the looming crisis, Abbott said a series of new strategies would be implemented.
“To help local officials, because communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden Administration, Texas is providing charter buses for these illegal immigrants … to Washington, D.C.,” said Abbott.
He continued, “We’re sending them to the United States capital, where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they’re allowing to come across our border.”
The governor noted the Biden administration and their partners from immigrant-advocacy groups have been putting migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border on buses and taking them to San Antonio, Texas.
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said. “Instead of busing these people to San Antonio, let’s continue the ride — all the way to Washington, D.C.”
Then, Abbott immediately signed an order directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management to head up the operation.
It has been reported that massive numbers of migrants, many among them Covid-positive and having criminal records, have been routinely released in Texas communities.
According the governor’s office, as quoted by the Texas Tribune, the program is “completely voluntary for migrants and would happen only after they had been processed and released by the Department of Homeland Security.”
The office also provided that, in addition to buses, the governor ordered the state to charter flights to transport migrants to Washington, D.C.
Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd specified that more than 900 buses would be provided.
The migrants would have to show documentation that they had already been processed by DHS to take a bus or a plane to go to the capital.
Governor Abbott has also directed DPS to conduct “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial vehicles as they cross international ports of entry into Texas from Mexico. This directive, effective immediately, anticipates a significant rise in cartel-facilitated smuggling via trucks upon the end of Title 42 expulsions.
Abbott called the effort a “zero-tolerance policy” for unsafe vehicles used for smuggling drugs and people.
The governor revealed that beginning Thursday, the National Guard will begin its “first phase of mass migration rehearsal” to prepare for the anticipated surge in border crossings.
Abbott said the National Guard troops will be equipped with riot gear to address potential violence among caravans and migrants.
As an additional protective measure, the state will create boat blockades on the Rio Grande and install concertina wire, a type of razor wire, in low-river crossings on the river that are high-traffic areas for border-crossers.
Abbott also described the actions that have already been taken to address the issue, including Operation Lone Star and building the border wall. After President Biden discontinued construction of the wall begun by former President Donald Trump last year, Abbott allocated $1 billion to erect a barrier along the state’s border with Mexico.
Since last March, the state has deployed 10,000 National Guard and Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers to the southern border. More than 200,000 illegal border crossers were apprehended, said the governor at the press conference. Of them, more than 11,000 were arrested, including cartel members, drug smugglers, and cop-killers. Abbott said that the troopers seized enough fentanyl “to kill every man, woman, and child in Texas.”
The busing and enhanced vehicle inspection will be added to Operation Lone Star. Abbott said more directives will be announced next week.
Abbott’s opponents were quick to slam the initiatives.
“If Abbott focused on solutions instead of stunts, then Texas could have made some real progress on this issue over the last seven years,” said Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is seeking to unseat Abbott in the Texas gubernatorial race later this year.
San Antonio Representative Joaquin Castro called Abbott an “incompetent governor,” while Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (District 16) claimed that the governor developed a “sickening record of using human beings for political purposes.”
There are more than 1.7 million illegal aliens in Texas, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
According to DHS, between June 1, 2011, and March 31, 2022, more than 365,000 criminal aliens were put into local Texas jails, of which over 250,000 were classified as illegal aliens by DHS. These aliens were charged with more than 416,000 criminal offenses, which included arrests for 774 homicide charges, 49,866 assault charges, 7,756 burglary charges, 51,130 drug charges, 768 kidnapping charges, 20,324 theft charges, 32,581 obstructing police charges, 2,302 robbery charges, 5,241 sexual assault charges, 6,263 sexual-offense charges, and 4,652 weapon charges.
