It looks like Texas is more serious about controlling the border than congress:
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the state will deploy 1,000 troops from the Texas National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to aid the federal government with border security efforts.
“There is an escalating crisis at the border — a crisis Congress is refusing to fix,” said Abbott, who was flanked by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, along with Maj. Gen. Tracy Norris, the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard, during a news conference at the Texas Capitol.
Abbott said the troops will “provide assistance at temporary holding facilities” in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso and also help at ports of entry. The federal government, he said, will pay “100% of the costs of this short-term mission.”
Migrant apprehensions along the border have continued to surge in recent months. According to numbers released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the beginning of June, roughly 133,000 people were apprehended or surrendered to border agents along the southwest border in May.
In the El Paso and Del Rio sectors, the number of migrants crossing the border has jumped 43% and 46%, respectively, since April. The vast majority of migrants entering the country are unaccompanied minors or families from Central America who are seeking asylum in the United States.
The fact that the federal government is picking up the tab is interesting (and entirely appropriate).
Texas has sent National Guardsmen to the border before, which provided some temporary amelioration to the problem. Will this spur congress to act? Of course not. The entire reason we’re getting so many minors is that Democrats have been encouraging it, covertly or overtly, because those are the only illegal aliens that elicit any public sympathy outside their party’s base, and because they believe they can amnesty them for electoral advantage down the road.
We need both E-Verify and a real border wall, as well as significantly more border control personnel and facilities. It’s a shame President Trump didn’t address this when Republicans controlled both branches of congress.
Tags: Border Controls, Dan Patrick, Dennis Bonnen, Greg Abbott, Texas, Tracy Norris
It amazes me that e-verify isn’t talked about more. Democrats, I can see why they would ignore it. But republicans, too, pretend it doesn’t exist.
Remember 15 years or so ago, when the non-profit Minute Men were patrolling the border? Whatever became of them?
I’m guessing they got salted by troublemakers – liberals joined in order to do nasty stuff and make the group look bad. I don’t have much to back that up, though.