Texas Gov. Greg Abbott gave a staunch warning to any illegal immigrants thinking of entering the U.S. through the Lone Star State, during a round-table discussion on the border crisis on Tuesday.
"If you’re coming toward the United States of America and you’re thinking about crossing our border, and you’re thinking about making your border crossing into the state of Texas, you’re picking the wrong state to enter into," the governor said. "We’re going to do everything we can to keep you out of our border, to keep you out of our country."
One of those measures Abbott is looking to put in place is a 10-year minimum jail sentence for anyone who smuggles illegal immigrants into the U.S. in Texas.
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The governor said he is not satisfied with the penalties for smugglers, who oftentimes are attracted through social media postings to drive illegal immigrants to destinations just hours from the border.
Abbott said three years ago, Texas had the lowest number of border crossings in decades, mainly because there was a president in power, former President Donald Trump, who put an end to catch and release, implemented Title 42, built a border wall and had the attitude of allowing immigrants to come here legally, not illegally.
Then as soon as President Biden took office, Abbott added, all those policies were eliminated, which allowed immigrants to come into the U.S. illegally without consequences.
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The governor pointed to statistics from the second week of February, starting in 2020. He said during the week of Feb. 12, 2020, there were 3,985 illegal immigrants apprehended at the Texas border. The same week in 2021, Abbott said, there were 13,672 illegal immigrants apprehended, then in 2022 that week, there were 21,560.
Abbott did not hold back any verbal punches at the current sitting president’s border policy, which forced the state to implement its own way to address the number of illegal immigrants entering the country through Texas.
He said the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety, or DPS, were deployed to the border to push back on illegal immigration, and as a result, more than 25,000 of the most dangerous criminals were arrested and over 330,000 "gotaways" were apprehended.
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Had the Texas DPS not been in place, the governor speculated, there would have been hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants posing harm to the country, whether through crime or the pushing of drugs like fentanyl.
Texas DPS chief Steve McCraw said on Tuesday that his team seized over 19 tons of fentanyl, and he added that the fentanyl of today is not what it was in the past. These days, he explained, the deadly drug is not cooked in a hotel room, but instead in factories using chemicals from China that facilitate the manufacturing of pure fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Texas Border Czar Mike Banks also weighed in on the drugs and the illegal immigrants who "got away," saying it is easy to measure the number of drugs entering the country from port of entries, but it is tough to measure the number of drugs brought in by "gotaways."
Banks also said one of his goals is to make Texas the least desirable state for illegals to enter the country through.
One of the tools used to monitor the situation along the border is aerial balloons, according to Abbott. He said at a time when those balloons are needed the most, Biden is shooting them down and making it easier for people to enter the country.
The governor also spoke about his concerns for the sunsetting of Title 42, which is expected to happen in May.
Once eliminated, he said, the state expects up to 18,000 illegal crossings a day, or more than 6 million a year.
Title 42 has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations since March 2020 to rapidly expel migrants at the border due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration attempted to end the order last year but was blocked by a federal court order.
Last week, the Supreme Court announced that the case deciding the fate of the Title 42 health order was dropped from the court’s calendar, without providing any explanation for the move.
However, the move came after the Biden administration said the case could be "moot" given the order will end when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends in May.
