Texas Governor Greg Abbott issues a disaster declaration on the Southern Border on the same day he receives Donald Trump's endorsement for re-election in 2022.
Governor Abbott's disaster declaration let's him use all available resources to stem what he calls an "ongoing influx of unlawful immigrants."
Tony Payan, director for the center for the US and Mexico at Rice University's Baker Institute says Abbott wants to run for president in 2024 or perhaps to stay in the conversation while the presidential race begins. "I cannot interpret it in any other way because this is not your normal disaster in the way we understand it, a hurricane in Houston or Corpus Christi or someplace like that. This is really something the governor wants to keep alive on the front burner so we don't forget he's there."
The declaration authorizes the use of all necessary and available state and local resources to protect landowners in these counties from trespassers and the damage they cause to private property.
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Payan says "The governor is willing to say we have to employ this disaster declaration to protect private property, but he didn't have any problem with private property, owned by Texans, being confiscated for the border wall."
Abbott's letter on the declaration says "President Biden's open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities."
Payan says organized crime has been going on for a very long time and a better approach would be to work with federal agencies. "It seems to me the way the governor is setting it up is against the federal government and not with the federal government. The use of the disaster declaration gives him some leeway to implement some measures without having to go through the Texas legislature, which is already out of session."
You can read the governor's disaster declaration here.
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