Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently announced that Texas will board its own border wall following a Biden administration decision to abandon its responsibility to protect the southern U.S. border, specifically in Texas.
Abbott announced a $250 million down payment which will allow the state to hire a project manager and get started.
“Today we are announcing that Texas will build a border wall in our state to help secure our border,” Abbott said at a press conference.
The governor said that it would be constructed on a combination of donated private land and state land and be partially funded by donations.
“My belief, based upon conversations that I’ve already had, is a combination of state land as well as volunteer land will yield hundreds of miles to build a wall in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
During the Trump administration more than 450 miles of border wall was constructed. The incoming administration put a sudden stop to the work shortly after President Biden’s inauguration.
Abbott and other critics of the move accuse the federal government of encouraging migrants to surge across the southern border due to administration’s “open border” policies, such as the halt to wall construction and rollback of policies from the Trump administration policies, including migrant protection protocols.
Texas and other border states have seen “carnage” from people coming over, according to Abbott. During the first four months of the year the Texas Department of Public Safety saw an 800% increase in the quantity of the extremely dangerous street drug fentanyl confiscated at the border, the governor said.
In response, Abbott has deployed National Guard troops to the border and has ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest and detain immigrants and bring charges against them, among them illegal entry, smuggling, human trafficking and trespassing.
Rising crime
“Make no mistake, the border crisis that we’re dealing with right now is a direct result of the open border policies that have been put in place by the Biden administration,” Abbott emphasized.
“Homes are being invaded, neighborhoods are dangerous and people are being threatened on a daily basis with guns by people coming across the border or those working with those coming across the border.”
The surge of migration continues to increase as more than 180,000 migrants were encountered along the border in the month of May alone.
The Biden administration continues to blame the spike in border traffic on “root causes” including poverty, violence with cartels and climate change. The administration continues to downplay the role the decrease in enforcement and relaxing of restrictions has played in the border crisis.
