Governor Greg Abbott Policies

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Governor Greg Abbott delivered a letter to President Joe Biden, upon his arrival in El Paso for his first trip to the border, calling on him to do his job and secure the border by enforcing federal immigration laws.

In a letter, Governor Abbott provided five specific actions the President can immediately take to secure the border and restore order to an out-of-control immigration crisis.

The Governor handed the letter to President Biden after greeting him on the tarmac at the El Paso International Airport. The visit marks the President's first trip to the southern border since being sworn into office almost two years ago.

Governor Abbott has taken unprecedented action to secure the border in the wake of the federal government's inaction, including:

• Securing $4 billion in funding for Texas' border security efforts

• Launching Operation Lone Star and deploying thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers

• Taking aggressive action to aid border communities, including busing thousands of migrants to Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia

• Designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations to keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis.

• Arresting and jailing criminals trespassing or committing other state crimes along the southern border

• Issuing an executive order authorizing the Texas National guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to return illegal immigrants to the border at ports of entry

• Allocating resources to acquire 1,700 unused steel panels to build the border wall in Texas

• Signing into law to make it easier to prosecute smugglers bringing people into Texas

• Signing 15 laws cracking down on human trafficking in Texas

• Signing a law enhancing penalties for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl

• Issuing a disaster declaration for the border crisis

• Issuing an executive order preventing non-governmental entities from transporting illegal immigrants

• Signing memoranda of understanding between the State of Texas and the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas to enhance border security measures in their states that will prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas

• Activating the Joint Border Security Operations Center (JBSOC) and directing the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Military Department, and Texas Division of Emergency Management to coordinate Texas' response to secure the border

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden Jr.

President of the United States

Dear President Biden,

Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion too little too late. Moreover, your visit avoids the site where mass illegal immigration occurs and sidesteps the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies. Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which have overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis. The chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted.

Under President Trump, the federal government achieved historically low levels of illegal immigration. Under your watch, by contrast, America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings. Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.

All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws. Halfway through your presidency, though, I can finally welcome you to the border. When you finish the photo-ops in a carefully stage-managed version of El Paso, you have a job to do:

You must comply with the many statutes mandating the various categories of aliens "shall" be detained, and end the practice of unlawfully paroling aliens  en masse.

You must stop sandbagging the implementation of the Remain-in-Mexico policy and Title 42 expulsions, and fully enforce those measures as the federal courts have ordered you to do.

You must aggressively prosecute illegal entry between ports of entry, and allow ICE to remove illegal immigrants in accordance with existing federal laws.

You must immediately resume construction of the border wall in the State of Texas, using the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for that purpose.

You must designate the Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

On behalf of all Americans, I implore you: Secure our border by enforcing Congress's immigration laws.

Sincerely,

Greg Abbott

Governor