thank everybody for being with us here today and in particular I want to thank General Selzer and uh the Texas borders are Mike Banks uh but let me focus on General Selzer for a moment I want to thank the general for his leadership in part in in running the military side of operation lonar in part because of his leadership and looking out for the best interest of his troops to make sure that they have living facilities uh that are appropriate uh for troops who are operating on pretty much a 24/7 basis and I also want to thank the troops and soldiers of the Texas Military Department and the Texas National Guard for waging an unprecedented effort for a state to secure its own border remember this this unprecedented effort is needed only because of Joe Biden’s unprecedented open border policies when he became president we had the lowest illegal border crossings in about 40 years now under Joe Biden’s open border policies there’s been an all-time record set for the number of people crossing the border illegally more than 10 million people have been apprehended crossing the border illegally think about this here in Texas there’s more than four Houstons that crossed the border illegally just under the 3 and a half years of Joe Biden’s presidency including people who are known terrorists known murderers known rapist other people who are very dangerous posing a danger to the people of our state which is exactly why we have operation Lone Star for Texas to step up and do what the bid Administration is failing to do and that’s very simply to enforce the laws that are already on the books already on the books are laws that require the president to deny illegal entry to detain anybody who does cross illegally and then to build border barriers he’s not doing any of it Texas is is doing all of it one thing that the National Guard and the Texas Military Department have done prolifically in addition to the State Building its own border wall what the National Guard have done uh they have built more than 100 miles of razor wire border barrier antil climb barrier and other barriers that deny illegal entry into our state and it physically puts the National Guard in a position where they’re able to effectively repel and turn back people who are trying to cross the border illegally and then of course uh there’s what they did just up the road from where we are right now in Eagle Pass Texas and Shelby Park about a 50 acre Park is an area where sometimes the B Administration was allowing 4 to 5,000 people cross a day illegally just in that one Park area the National Guard wired it shut now as opposed to having four or 5,000 people crossing a day in the last two months for example there’s been an average of only about two people crossing the border in that 50 acre Park a day and most of those people are arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety if you look more broadly at what the state has been able to achieve because of the leadership not just of General seler but because of the actions by the men and women who serve under him in the na guard in the Texas Military Department you can see that over the past year over the past two years illegal immigration has increased in New Mexico Arizona and California at the very same time it has gone down in the state of Texas by about 72% that’s a result of the of the deterrence that’s been established by the Texas National Guard and that brings us to the point that Why We Gather today the the troops that have been involved in this Mission especially in this particular region they’ve been scattered for miles around this entire region having to drive long distances to go to work every day and then drive back to wherever they’re staying that particular night at the end of the day it’s it was a very inefficient methodology to house the large number of National Guard troops who are deployed to the Border this base camp uh is a a far superior strategy that for one will allow the state to be able to have our troops right on the border itself but for another provide the type of housing uh and other uh standards of living that improve the quality of life for the men and women who are wearing a uniform who are serving on our border what you’re looking at is uh phase one of this 80 acre project phase one the soldiers are moving in today in Phase One it’ll be about 300 soldiers moving in today phase two will be completed about two weeks from today and when you have about another 300 soldiers moving in that process will continue all the way until November until we uh have this entire area uh with soldiers that can at that time house up to at least 1,700 Soldiers with the capability of increasing that on an as needed basis but I want to thank uh en Selzer for uh his leadership on getting this done knowing uh that he has already achieved success that no other state has ever been able to achieve in securing the sovereignty and safety not just of their state but also of our country but also he’s he’s been a leader uh as the general of these troops having their back making sure they have the highest quality of living so that they will have the highest quality uh of mental capacity as as they go do battle every single day against those who are entering our state illegally and my gratitude uh to you general for getting that done uh and just know that Texas will not stop until we gain full operational control of the Border in the state of Texas General seler thank you Governor uh good afternoon everyone what you are seeing here today like the governor said is Phase One of six phases that will culminate in the construction of 95 buildings on this 80 acre complex each phase will take approximately 30 days and each phase adds about 300 troops to this base uh the exception to this is phase two uh phase two will will be complete in 15 days from today because many of those structures are already being started on this base so mid June you will see another 300 troops getting off their buses and filling into this base uh if you want to see a depiction off to your right uh the magenta buildings on that graphic are phase one the yellow is phase two and you can see the magnitude of all six phases once it’s built out based on what you can just see here from phase one uh what you don’t see in phase one is below the surface so this was essentially a farm and the land’s been tilled and rolled all this uh gravel’s been put down uh sewer water a fire hydrant system and preparations also for being uh connected to the electrical Grid in the city so we’ll be on complete uh city sewer water hydrant system and then eventually electricity uh also in this phase Central to it was the perimeter fencing uh quite a large uh project uh you can see impressive fencing with razor wire camera systems and and light systems um just looking around us here you have the dining facility it can seat 700 people at a time um this is a pavilion the picnic tables you see behind you are really supposed to be here where we’re sitting this can be used for picnic tables uh outings put up a basketball goal or formations and then the pad behind you is actually the location of a fixed building that will be the gymnasium and that will be complete in phase two additionally uh what we went and toured is we have two types of dormitories uh we have the large dormitories with 35 34 rooms uh minimum square footage in there is 118 Square ft but every Soldier will have their own room on this base uh additionally we have uh staff rooms that have a larger bed have a kitchenet and have a shower and a bathroom room again for one uh service member there will be no doubled up service members in this location uh I’d like to move on to why we are doing this uh the governor already alluded to it it’s operationally more effective and efficient to build this base here it’s right in the middle of the 1254 miles of border that we’re uh taking operational control of as the governor said uh um he also spoke of troop travel time many of the troops you saw today are coming from a base in cizo Springs that’s 45 50 Maybe by military vehicle an hour away so they have an hour Transit time just to get to the Border some of these 300 troops too are also coming from northern base camp some 30 minutes to an hour away um so it’s operationally uh efficient to have them on this border and again in this area we’re not just taking control and managing Shelby Park we have 13 projects well North well south of Shelby Park where in conjunction with land owners who who want to stop illegal immigration on their property we’re putting up anti climb barrier and concertino wire um the the other aspect of operational efficiency is we are going to move the Joint Task Force operation loone star the military headquarters to this Ford operating base it’s currently located in macallen it will relocate here along with that we’ll also relocate a maintenance Hub that’s in another area of the border so now at this major base you have a Joint Task Force Headquarters you’ll have a maintenance Hub and then also in all the the area behind us you also have a place where we keep most of our logistical supplies so it’s operationally more efficient and effective the second point is it’s fiscally sound it’s a fiscally sound way to house soldiers and Airmen during the course of these six phases by the time this Project’s over we will have shut down three other base camps additionally we will be moving in uh soldiers that are staying in hotels around in Regional areas again these are some hotels and small towns the last thing you want as a commander is to have your troops dispersed in hotels around the region so we’re bringing all these people in and I’ll will tell you that our hotel rates uh expenses since 2021 have gone up 30% so again it’s a fiscally sound reason to do this and and bring the soldiers here we estimate that once this base camp is full and we have all everybody out of those hotels and the three base camps shut down we will save $1.5 million a month on housing soldiers and that doesn’t even include the fuel that they’re using right now to drive and get to the Border uh and then lastly and most obviously it improves the quality of life for our Personnel I came out here yesterday uh we ate in the dining facility they were doing a rehearsal to make sure they were ready for those 300 troops today and that staff in there is super excited to serve uh our soldiers um they have a chef chef Steve um um he’s a veteran uh in 2018 he was awarded the Armed Forces chef of the Year award so they’re having Chef serve meals in that dining facility but most importantly for quality of life again they will all have their single room one aspect of the military is we spend a lot of time together we we we sleep together mostly we eat together we go to work together which you the greatest thing you can do for Soldier is give them that one bit of privacy when they lay their head down at night and then lastly just have a couple thank yous thank you to the city vehicle pass there’s 18 different building permits that had to be permitted for this base camp the sewage the plumbing everything has to be permitted and certified and inspected and so uh this is a big project for a city of the size of Eagle Pass so we really appreciate their help in in doing all that secondly I’d like to thank the Texas legislature for funding operation loone star if we weren’t appropriately funded this would not exist because we would have to peace meal this together which again is inefficient inexpensive so thank you to the Texas legislature and then finally thank you to Governor D abot thank you for your leadership thank you for your Relentless efforts to secure our border and most of all today thank you for taking care of our troops absolutely thank you General so uh the United States has a uh United States bordar and as far as I know the United States bordar has actually never been to the border and seeing people cross illegally well Texas decided we need our own borders are someone who actually knows the border and we were able to uh hire someone who uh worked in the border patrol himself for more than two decades uh and he’s been a Hands-On borders are actively and aggressively working from the border from the real Grand Valley all the way to El Pas providing the state of Texas with a high level of expertise and information and advice uh allowing us to operate uh more effectively and more efficiently uh and as Mike Banks Mike thank you very much thank you Governor so let me start off I want to cover something that the governor covered a while ago 72% we have decreased traffic by 72% in the state of Texas while we’re seeing traffic go up in California Arizona and New Mexico now are we ready to declare Victory absolutely not right we we still got a ways to go but as we become more and more efficient and we see less and less traffic we’ve got to be able to move swiftly to that threat as it continues to move and adjust to us having this base here makes us that it makes us more efficient it makes us more mobile it puts all the troops together and so I can tell you I spent 10 years in US Navy and uh I’ve never had a dining facility quite like this I wish I would have had won this this well this is an outstanding base team housing has done a phenomenal job the crew in the dining facility the the the living facilities is just phenomenal um and I want to give you one more number that I think that that is very important in the last two years we’ve seen the traffic consistently decrease in Texas due to the efforts of operation lonar with the soldiers and with DPS by midnight tonight Texas will have seen the lowest number of border crossings in two years since May of 2022 we’re going to keep pushing we’re going to keep adjusting that threat and having this base here is going to allow us to to be that to be more efficient to more swiftly move back and forth and it’s just smart for taxpayers because like the general said we are saving taxpayers millions of dollars while improving the quality of life for our soldiers right who are continuing to fight and do this Mission and so we’re going to keep pushing hard we’re going to keep adjusting to the threat and this is going to help us be more efficient in doing so thank you very much we’ll take a few questions go ahead well so the the desire to maintain control of Shelby Park is not longterm uh that that’s a park that the the residents of that Community uh deserve to be able to use like they did before but we got to remember this when there were 5,000 people coming across the border a day into that Park the residents of Eagle Pass were not able to use that Park so the the the time that will come is going to be when uh there is operational control of the Border in a way that restores the normaly to Eagle Pass Texas the way that it’s been for more than a 100 years I believe if we have a president in place who’s going to enforce the laws that deny illegal entry into the United States of America that will be a time when the residents of Eagle Pass will be able to get their park back question terms of tell us are h theity fa the questioning sure I’ll answer the second question I’ll have the general answer to the first question so why is this needed uh the fact of the matter is the the people uh who are in charge of bringing people across the border illegally are the drug cartels the the the the drug cartels haven’t closed down business uh they haven’t gone away uh they’re going to remain in operational control of the northern border of Mexico for a long time the the moment that we ratchet back the resistance that Texas has is the moment that the cartels will start shifting migrants away from Arizona New Mexico and shift them right back into the state of Texas and so we can not relent in our security of the Border unless we a president who’s actually going to fully enforce the laws of the United States and I cannot be more clear about what I’m about to say there are three laws on the books already passed by Congress already that were inherited by Joe Biden that he simply is not complying with one requires uh the president and his administration to deny illegal entry the other is to detain anybody who does cross illegally and the third is to build border barriers he’s not doing any of those three things that are required by law passed by Congress unless until we have a president who does that Texas is going to have to remain Vigilant and use this as our primary staging base in in the center of our border to make sure that Texas is doing everything possible to maintain operational control of the Border in the Senate Texas to the second question uh our we have a contractor who who does the hiring um it is my assumption that most of these people are coming from the local community due to the the region that we’re in and and the the kind of second piece of that is this will be a great economic engine for this community as these soldiers move in and eat in the restaurants go to the churches buy gas in the gas stations so um we hope to have a great partnership with this community go ahead CLE question andal so you mentioned breaches of a military base here in Texas to be clear it’s not just in the state of Texas where they’ve been breaches of military bases by people who have come across the border illegally it’s happened in other states also and the reason why it’s happening is because we have a federal government that’s not securing our federal military bases and and not securing the border that allows people to cross the border illegally and to penetrate those military bases this just outrageous that the commander-in-chief of the United States of America is not putting National Security Forefront and a core component of National Security is securing our military installations so it shows how chaotic and non-compliant uh the the president and the federal government are with regard to the immigration system that allows our military bases to be invaded it’s it’s the federal government in charge of those military bases whenever something like that happens though we as a state escalate our activity to to add even more support to the Border areas where people may be getting across that would allow that penetration to take place what would you do to make that that doesn’t happen here on the state level at this well I I can assure you uh we could only hope that someone would try to uh try to invade this base because uh they would be apprehended immediately and prosecuted uh immediately that said uh we we have a a singular goal and that’s to continue to deny illegal entry to provide uh not only the Department of Public Safety but also the National Guard with with the tools and the strategies that actually make them more capable of denying illegal entry into our country and into our state goal one is to uh uh go beyond having a decline of 7 2% of people crossing the border is a decline of 100% of people crossing the border and and be because of the way that the National Guard is going to continue to expand their operations of building border barrier and then backing up that border barrier uh with National Guard troops who have who are armed with the the tactics and the tools to be able to deny IL illegal entry that will help us to continue to reduce the numbers of illegal immigration into the state of Texas the people is au in real what do what are the rules of engagement if they are for them you say if they are what I mean I’m say is this just in the way that unifor milary what what is they arrest people they people what they do they so the the Texas National Guard Texas Military Department working in conjunction with the Texas Department of Public Safety to together uh they have proven uh that they can successfully deny illegal entry into the state Texas into the United States uh and those who do make it in are arrested and put in jail it’s a criminal violation uh for people to cross the barriers that have been constructed by the Texas National Guard is Criminal Trespass uh that will land them in jail uh and and that will make them subject to uh deportation to repeat offender status to all kinds of things that can uh increase uh any future uh imprisonment for any future violation uh so uh what they’re doing they being the National Guard and and Texas Department of Public Safety are doing uh is proven uh by the reduction of crossings by going from 5,000 to only two people a day Crossing in Eagle Pass in Shelby Park uh from the reduction of 72% of people crossing illegally in the state of Texas while at the very same time the the cartels have shifted those crossers to New Mexico to California into Arizona so it’s going up in other states that are posing no resistance but it’s going down in the state of Texas where we have denied illegal entry into our [Music] state sayel people they shoot so arrest are made all the time uh people who are working in collaboration the cartels uh the the number of uh Smugglers whove been arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety has gone up which I’m surprised about for this reason I signed a law that that imposes a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars for any of these Smugglers who are arrested despite that law that’s going to put these people behind bars for a very long time the number of arrests of people on the Texas side involved in smuggling who work in collaboration with the cartels has gone up our job is to make sure we continue to make those arrest uh until we get all those people off the streets one more question how much of the border m County border is uh the military Department securing yeah so how much of the Maverick County border uh is secured yeah the short answer is all of it okay all of it yes so we have troops along the Maverick County border and again where correct exactly and and what I talked about is we have 13 projects either completed or under way or in in the works basis faity theis over so listen uh no one knows the future of what’s going to happen uh the the reality is this is a base that’s going to be needed as long as people are crossing the border illegally into the state of Texas and if you can tell me when that will endend that that’ be fabulous thank you
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Video Duration: 00:26:35
