Reaction & Commentary
He has the tools in his toolbox to do exactly what Texas is doing that’s to deny illegal entry into the country which he is required to do by laws already passed by Congress it’s all because Joe Biden allowed this entire area to be penetrated by the drug cartels that smuggled in illegal
Immigrants Americans are not going to soon forget what they saw happen in New York City Governor Abbot to unveils to expand border enforcement to try to deter migrants from from coming up to the Texas Mexico border this announcement alongside at least 20 state representatives in Eagle Pass in Shelby
Park just days after more than a dozen Republican Governors showed up alongside him to America we are dealing with the biggest border crisis it’s all because Joe Biden allowed this entire area to be penetrated by the drug cartels that smuggled in illegal immigrants have you
See an area that is boxed off by a container that has razor wire on the container or on the ground or on the fence those are areas that illegal immigrants were once able to cross that are now unable to cross and the reason why we’ve been able to achieve that
Level of decrease in ille illegal Crossings is only because of great teamwork in agencies across the state of Texas they have made over 30 39,000 criminal arrests apprehended more than 480,000 illegal migrants they’ve deterred more than 95,000 illegal entries and engaged in more than 4,300 bailouts they have filed more than
19,000 charges for smuggling those charges for smuggling now face a new consequence because of members of the legislature who stand behind me they passed a bill that I signed into la law that increases the mandatory minimum time behind bars for Smugglers to 10 years if you smuggle somebody into or
Through and across the state of Texas illegally you’ll be spending a long time Behind Bars by the Texas National Guard uh they have more than a million encounters with illegal immigrants uh they have turned back more than 990,000 people who were trying to get into the country
Illegally uh there have been more than uh 160 Mi altogether of barriers placed up not counting the border wall uh they include the the razor wire uh fencing anti-climb barriers these conx boxes and the buoys uh that are in the river those together add up to more than 160 Mi of
Barriers that have been placed up also Texas is the first and only state in the history of the unit States of America to build our own border wall we if you look at the amount of wall already constructed and uh the amount of wall that is going to be under construction
Texas will have built more of the Trump border wall than even Trump built in the state of Texas in the past half year or so you see that even though Texas represents about 2/3 of the Border we represent only about 30% of The Crossings the the lead Crossing areas
Are California Arizona and New Mexico that represent 70% of The Crossings now unlike before migrants are choosing to go to States other than Texas and that’s because Texas has put up the resistance that it has early on under the Biden Administration most of the migrants were coming through Texas that’s not true the
Same is true for this area that We Gather in right now if you look at this uh massive Park area this is an area where you would regularly see 2,000 3,000 maybe 4,000 people crossing the border illegally since this park has been taken over by the National Guard
The daily average is under 10 a day it shows that deterrents can achieve results at decreasing illegal immigration the only reason why it’s not happening is because the president of the United States is not enforcing the laws that are already on the books he does not need more laws he has the tools
In his toolbox to do exactly what Texas is doing and that’s to deny illegal entry into the country which he is required to do by laws already passed by Congress part of the teamwork that we’re seeing is is tremendous leadership by the Texas National Guard uh to look forward about
Where we are going uh on strategies to both add and to accommodate more National Guard in this area we will also work with the National Guard to continue their strategies of adding more miles of razor wire an anti-climb barrier to also recognize another branch of government
In Texas that is a partner in this effort and that’s the legislative branch the tools and strategies that DPS the National Guard that I and others have to do anything to secure the Border would not exist if it weren’t for the efforts of the members of the Texas House of
Representatives I want to have some of them speak at this time in including uh the chair of House Appropriations chairman Greg Bonnett thank you governor governor thank you for your leadership on this issue I remember in uh mid 2021 the governor asked to visit with me in his office he had already initiated
Operation Lone Star and what he shared in that visit was that the problem at the border was of a magnitude that we had never before experienced and efforts and initiatives we had taken in the past were simply going to be insufficient we needed a new plan and it was going to require great
Resources and since that moment with Governor Abbott’s leadership and with speaker felin’s leadership lieutenant governor Patrick and all of the members of the House of Representatives that you see here we have been unwavering in our commitment to step into the Gap and to address a chaotic crisis where the
Federal government has refused to address and enforce our immigration laws when you look at the Appropriations for border security under the four years of the Trump Administration in Texas that was $1.6 billion for the four years of the Biden presidency Texas is appropriating 11.6 billion dollar to do
The same thing and what we’re seeing is that that deterrence does work and the park in which you’re standing right now is proof positive of where once there was chaos and several thousand people day coming across it has flowed to an almost non-existent number so it can be
Done when you break down uh the effort about $3.1 billion goes into barriers and Border uh infrastructure about $200 millionar because Texas has banned Sanctuary cities in our state goes to transporting illegal immigrants to Sanctuary cities in other parts of the United States and the balance is spent
On the Texas Military Department and the Department of Public Safety for human resources and operations and we thank them for the great work that they are doing and the thing that everybody should understand is that the governor the speaker lieutenant governor and all of the members who you see before you
Stand firmly committed that as long as there is an absence of the federal government doing its job to secure our international border we will step up and take their place thank you very much uh next is representative Spiller yes Texans know uh that the Biden Administration has completely failed and
Refused to secure our border and enforce Federal immigration policy our cries for help our demands for help have been ignored we’ve had enough in Texas and so uh with my help we I carried and we with the group here today uh passed and with Governor Abbott’s uh uh signature passed
S SP for the strongest border security bill in the history of our state in the history of our nation for the first time ever uh we’re allowed to prosecute people coming into our state illegally from a foreign Nation if they cross someplace other than a lawful PT of
Entry it’s a landmark bill that allows Texans to protect Texas uh to allows us to return those that arrive here illegally and to prosecute and incarcerate those that refuse to comply and so uh it’s completely constitutional because it’s not it’s in compliance with the uh prestent set in the Arizona case
Uh it’s not preempted by existing Federal immigration law it’s not in conflict with Federal immigration law that’s in in place and mostly uh Texas has the right the constitutional right and Authority uh to secure its border and so we’re proud of that bill the B Administration continues uh uh to fight
Us uh they’re spending more effort to fight us than they are to secure the border and uh we look forward to that fight uh in the court I know his Department of Justice uh has uh has filed a suit to uh to contest that uh to
That I would say bring it we’re ready for that fight and so U uh I would look forward to continue with the uh opportunity to work uh with this group of conservative representatives to continue to protect Texas and our country look forward to uh working with Governor Abbot uh and his leadership we
Thank him for that and the job that he’s done so that Texas leads the way to show others how we protect our state and our country thank you representative and now representative Tri Clair every single legislature standing here represents a border District because every one of our districts is
Impacted by what comes across this border every state in our country country is a border state because there is no state in the United States that is not impacted by the drugs by the weapons and by the humans that are trafficked across this border Americans American children are
Dying every day of fanal in every single state that comes across this border women who are being trafficked across this border are sold into sex slavery every day and trafficked through the cartel Network across our country and let me make one thing very clear there is no not a single person coming across
That is free every single one of them is paying a very dear price to the cartel they are paying with their money they are paying with their bodies and they are pay paying by being sold into indentured servitude and President Biden is not just supporting it he is encouraging it instead of protecting
Americans he is protecting the cartels they are making more money off of his failure at the border than they ever have before and Governor Abbott and the Texas legislature are stepping into that Gap and let me tell you we will not give up Texans are no stranger to being put
Under pressure to having to stand up for what we believe in and this is our moment Governor Abbott is supported by Republican Governors from across this country many of whom are sending troops here to help us the real heroes are the DPS officers and the Texas Texas
National Guard who are serving every day away from their families to make sure that Texans and every American are safe and the legislators behind me are ready to give the governor the tools and the resources and the funding that he needs to keep this fight going this is the
Number one issue not just to my district not just to this state but to Americans across the country and so to every American out there Texas has your back Governor Abbott has your back and governor Abbott is doing the job that President Biden refuses to do and we will never give up
