MISSION, Texas (Talk1370.com) -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took aim at the growing crisis at the Texas-Mexico border Tuesday, warning that the state will step in to fill the gap created by the Biden administration at the nation's southern border.
"The Biden Administration has created a crisis at our southern border through open border policies that give the green light to dangerous cartels and other criminal activity," Abbott said. "Border security is the federal government’s responsibility, but the State of Texas will not allow the administration’s failures to endanger the lives of innocent Texans. Instead, Texas is stepping up to fill the gaps left open by the federal government to secure the border, apprehend dangerous criminals, and keep Texans safe."
Abbott took an aerial tour of the border and received a briefing from members of the U.S. Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the National Border Patrol Council, and the Texas National Guard.
Last week, Abbott announced Operation Lone Star - an effort that will deploy air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.
More than 800 criminal aliens have been apprehended in Texas this year, Abbott said, including sex offenders and gang members, with many of those individuals having been previoulsy deported. Cartels are ramping up trafficking and smuggling along the border and overwhelming border patrol resources, part of a strategy to bring more dangerous elements across the border including violent criminals, contraband, and individuals from special interest countries.
Abbott condemned the Biden administration's open border strategies and for failing to provide vaccines to members of the U.S. Border Patrol. He noted that the the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are responsible for detaining, testing, and quarantining anyone that comes across the border, and called on the Biden Administration to increase the amount of ICE facilities and provide more funding to the agency to allow them to do their jobs.