By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday urged President Joe Biden to implement five policies to help secure the U.S. southern border, hand delivering him a letter after the president landed at the El Paso International Airport for his first visit to the border since he took office.
“Thousands of Texans have lost their lives,” Abbott told reporters, saying he told the president that the chaos at the border was a result of the president’s “refusal to enforce immigration law” already passed by Congress.
He said the president’s visit was “two years and $20 billion too late” and argued Biden avoided crisis areas and meeting with Texas property owners whose lives were being “destroyed” by his policies.
Biden didn’t speak publicly or field questions from the media during his visit Sunday.
In his letter, Abbott told the president, “even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which have overrun downtown El Paso because your administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis,” which is a direct result “of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted.”
While illegal immigration slowed under the Trump administration, Abbott said, under Biden’s watch, “America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country.”
He said he told the president, “Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings. Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.”
“All of this is happening,” he said, because the president has violated his “constitutional obligation to defend the states against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws.”
Abbott said he welcomed the president to the southern border. After Biden was finished with “photo-ops in a carefully stage-managed version of El Paso,” Abbott said, he “must” implement the policies he suggested. They include complying with federal law requiring detention and deportation of those in the U.S. illegally, fully complying with court orders to implement Remain in Mexico and Title 42 policies, finishing building the border wall in Texas, and designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
The first proposal, requiring illegal foreign nationals to be detained to “end the practice of unlawfully paroling aliens en masse,” the Biden administration is currently fighting in court in a lawsuit filed by Florida. A trial begins Monday in that lawsuit.
The second, to “stop sandbagging the implementation of the Remain in Mexico policy and Title 42 expulsions, and fully enforce those measures as the federal courts have ordered you to do,” is also being fought in court by the Biden administration in a lawsuit brought by Texas and Missouri. Arizona, Texas and 17 other states sued over Title 42, and have so far prevailed in the courts to halt it from being terminated.
The third, to “aggressively prosecute illegal entry between ports of entry and allow ICE to remove illegal immigrants in accordance with federal laws,” the Biden administration is also fighting in court. Nineteen attorneys general filed a brief with the Supreme Court in attempt to get the administration to comply with federal deportation requirements.
The fourth, to “immediately resume construction of the border wall” in Texas, is something the administration has vowed not to do after it halted construction shortly after the president took office. In the federal government’s absence, Abbott was the first governor to build a wall on Texas soil, which broke ground in December 2021.
The fifth was a continued call by the governor requesting the president to designate cartels as FTOs.
Abbott told reporters on Sunday that Biden’s response was “cordial” and that the president said he “wanted to work with Republicans.”
Abbott also said the president “has never called me to discuss” the “chaos at the border.” He said, “I’ve provided him with real solutions” and “I expect him to call me.”
Of the policies proposed by Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last week, Abbott said, “they will do nothing more than entice more illegal immigration.”
He also said that “Texas desperately needs more money” after having already spent $4 billion of Texas taxpayer money on border security efforts. The Texas Legislature, which convenes on Tuesday, will be committing at least another $4 billion to ongoing border security efforts, he said.
He also said U.S. House Republicans have committed to border security measures and he expects the federal government to reimburse Texas. Its border security mission, as of Jan. 6 and since March 2021, has led to the apprehension of more than 340,000 illegal foreign nationals and criminal arrests of over 23,000 people with over 21,000 felony charges reported. They’ve also seized over 355 million lethal doses of fentanyl.
Abbott pointed to Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sending busloads of people to Chicago and New York because “we don’t have the capability to cover them,” but “self-described sanctuary cities have the capacity to deal with this.”
Texas has bused over 9,100 people to Washington, D.C., since April, over 4,900 to New York City and over 1,500 to Chicago since August, and over 840 to Philadelphia since November, his office said.
None (Leftists) Dare Call It Treason.
Biden is a disgrace. We have no border any more. He has made it disappear as part of his plan to blue the cities of America. Too bad he and Democrats fought building that wall.
Biden is not a disgrace because he does nothing that has not been scripted. He is a marionette with leftists pulling the strings.
Can you say the 10th amendment??
(The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.)
Why would they have created it in the first place?
Think about it!!!
Time to enforce it to the full extent of the law and the amendment✍??.
GFM1956, The tenth amendment notwithstanding the Constitution is fairly clear as to the Limited power of the Federal Government. Article IV, Section 4 describes how the” Federal Government shall guarantee to every State a Republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them from invasion…” Protection of a States Border is a Federal issue, however what recourse has a State if the Federal Government is remiss in it’s obligation? Happily, Article I, Section 10 makes it clear that a State may engage in protection of it’s Border if…”actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of a delay”.
Given the above, One could make an argument for Texas to defend its Border with Mexico.
“It’s an obvious truth, that no Constitution can defend itself: it must be defended by the wisdom and Fortitude of Men”
Edmund Burke
Not that it will make any difference. Did this letter get CC’d to Xi by chance.
Nothing will change without his stamp of approval.
The tenth amendment ?
Use it or lose it?
One way tickets to Adak might solve the issue.
KB; Yes, without law and order we do not have a civilization, so 25 mil. illegal Aliens have to be deported, after all we do not want a free for all crime spree across the nation of all levels of crime and make a spectator sport out of breaking the law.
Nothing but a photo op. Watching a drug sniffing dog go through his training. “Cmon Man”!!! The same photo op that Deb Haagland did when she went to Alaska to check out all of those projects that we Alaskans so desperately want and need for the state of Alaska to succeed. “Cmon Man”!!!!
This is how an illegitimate president would act. He doesn’t give a damn. He knows he’s an imposter in the WH.
Remember that the avowed Christian, governor abbott dumped busloads of poorly clad innocent asylum seekers to VP Harris’s home on Christmas Eve. What level of Christian hypocrisy is that? How cruel is this man? Who gives a damn about his whiny concerns.
I do. I care very much about our nation, it’s purpose, and our Constitutional Republic form of government.
Lucinda, the only hypocrisy involved with that episode was the hypocrisy of you radical leftists who are encouraging and applauding this ongoing invasion of illegal aliens — as long as they do not appear in your backyards.
Well the people who are letting them in need to take care of them. How many do you want to care and pay for Lucinda?
Lucinda, the actual border states are dealing with hundreds if thousands if illegals a DAY. Gov Abbott and every border state should send every illegal alien to the capital, let the dc idiots deal with the problem they created. Open borders are ILLEGAL and compromise us in ways you refuse to acknowledge. You are part of the problem if you don’t acknowledge the massive illegal immigration going on at our borders. Wake up snowflake.
And what has cackling VP Harris been doing all along since she has become the border czar? Oh that’s right, checking into the root causes. Well the root causes are at her doorstep
To discuss the behaviors of Christians you would have to understand our motivations and doctrine.
Clear you don’t. Therefore engaging with you is pointless and troll feeding.
DONT THINK FOR A MINUTE THAT Alaska does not have OPEN BORDER Politicians all in their places with bright shining faces. We are the Northern Border with the deck stacked in Alaska’s biggest city. Go ahead ASK them ” are you for OPEN BORDERS ? ” . Rainbow fentanyl is here and the doors are open for Berk’s ” expert team of lawyers that I will put up against anyone in the nation ! We will proceed ahead as planned ” . and one more thing…. WHY has our governor NOT given his ” I will protect you from mass migration ” speech like the other governors ?
Republicans and Democrats need to calm their rhetoric and sit down together to come up with an immigration plan, including compromises on both sides.
Spending (hard-earned) taxpayer money to send undocumented immigrants to Democratic-led cities only serves to bolster political animosity and ZERO solutions.
And speaking of undesirable immigrants, how about deporting Jair Bolsanaro back to Brazil to face corruption accusations as well as seditious behavior?!
They have Catherine. They’ve met in Congress time and again and have enacted immigration laws which, as all southern border state governors have stated time and again, Democrat Presidents since Ronald Reagan have ignored. In the article you comment on, Governor Abbott makes that point repeatedly. Sending illegal aliens to jurisdictions that state they want them SAVES the citizens of Texas untold million$. If Bolsanaro is an illegal alien (undocumented migrants are here illegally) then I agree, send him back home, at Brazil’s expense. You are right! They should all be sent home at their country’s expense. Spending US taxpayer money on illegal people only encourages more of the actions you state that you want solved. That just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Those of us old enough to remember recall vividly when Ronnie took the Democrats (reluctantly) at their word. He gave amnesty, they gave him the middle finger.
Only someone as dense as Paul Ryan or as corrupt as the Turtle would take them at their word.
With respect, Catherine, what should Americans compromise to assure America’s borders are closed to illegal aliens, illegal aliens in America are deported, drug cartels go the way of Al Quaeda, and the Communist Chinese who want Alaska’s natural gas are persuaded to stop smuggling fentanyl into America?
.
What calm rhetoric would assure Americans that their neighborhoods aren’t about to be turned into Ciudad Juarez del Nortes, as if America’s justice system doesn’t seem to be in desperate need of overhaul already?
.
Open to suggestions… doubt there’s any right or wrong answer…
Perhaps you’d prefer the bipartisan methods of the Soviet Union. Do as told or go to Siberia?
I’d rather spend taxpayer money on deportation. And jailing those who come back illegally.
Solves the problem nicely.
It’s always funny when the left calls for bipartisanship. It’s similar to when an abusive spouse tells the victim to bring them something to use to do the beating.
This trip was a farce. Days were spent cleaning up the homeless camps (think of the tons of garbage now in the landfill) so Biden could have his photo op with “all is well.” The fooled and indoctrinated will believe it and call everyone racists. The open border is not going away, it will only get worse.
Usurper Biden visits the Potemkin Border.
Completely an Impeachable offense and Biden should be removed from office. Period.
Will we call for it? Most of us wish that. I believe.
Unfortunately as usual, nothing will happen. Why?? Because our very right to speak and be represented has been hijacked by evil doers.
Its like living in the twilight zone…
If one really wishes to discuss “Christian hypocrisy”, let’s focus on an alleged devote Catholic who:
1-is wildly pro abortion
2-cheated on his wife
3-repeatedly lies about everything
4-is wildly corrupt on an industrial level
5-instigated the modern slave trade by throwing open the borders
And on and on.
Glass houses.
Governor Abbott has no empathy or problem solving policies
What color is the sky in your world, Frank?
Ooooh a letter!! If he’s really bad, maybe he’ll get an angry phone call?! Or he will unfriend him on Facebook!! Shudder the thought. This is becoming an all out war! Thank goodness we have such stalwart leaders defending our sovereignty!
With all due respect governor, the border is in your state. And so is the Texas National Guard
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