Governor Greg Abbott has signed two bills dealing with immigration. Senate Bills 8 and 36 were passed by the state legislature this year. Abbott signed both during the Sheriffs' Association of Texas Annual Training Conference and Expo in Fort Worth.
"Texas is a law and order state, and that begins with our sheriffs," Abbott said.
SB 8 requires the sheriff of any county in Texas that operates a jail to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. SB 36 establishes a Homeland Security Division within the Department of Public Safety.
At the conference, Abbott said towns and counties along the Rio Grande were having trouble keeping up with the number of crossings during the Biden Administration. The Department of Homeland Security says Customs and Border Protection encountered 11 million people over his four year term.
"You saw what was happening in small, little communities completely incapable of dealing with it which is why Texas had to step up and do something about it," Abbott said.
Since Donald Trump took office, Customs and Border Protection says daily border encounters have dropped 93%.
"What they've done is really astonishing, record-breaking," Abbott said. "I've never seen the number of crossings be as low as they are in my lifetime."
Abbott spoke to the sheriffs with Tom Homan, the Trump Administration's "border czar." Homan said he would work to ensure criminal charges for people who disrupt ICE or harbor illegal immigrants such as those charged in the attack at an ICE detention center in Alvarado.
"Consequences work. Bad behavior won't change unless there are consequences. We're proving that," Homan said. "Having boots on the ground. Governor Abbott proved that when he had the most secure border during the Biden Administration because of action he took."
Homan said illegal crossings pose a national security threat. He said nine in ten asylum seekers is rejected because they cannot prove persecution or a threat.
"They're not escaping fear and persecution from their home government because of race, religion or political affiliation. They're coming for a better life. I get that, but it's not asylum," he said.
Despite the drop, Abbott said the Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety will keep working along the border as a "force multiplier." He told sheriffs the bills he signed Tuesday would help law enforcement
"It's the goal I have every day and the goal you have every day, and that is to make our state more safe," he said.
Homan said the Trump Administration intends to get a "hell of lot more officers, hell of a lot more detention beds, hell of a lot more planes, hell of a lot more targeting."