Texas governor claims feds asked for help closing border

(CN) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott accused the Biden administration of flip-flopping Thursday on a request from U.S. Customs and Border Protection for state troopers to help shut down six ports of entry on the Mexico border after CBP said they had no plans to close any crossings.

A fierce critic of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, which he claims are causing a crisis for Texas cities and landowners along the border, Abbott made a startling announcement early Thursday.

“I have directed the Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to surge personnel and vehicles to shut down six points of entry along the southern border to stop these caravans from overrunning our state,” he said in a statement.

“The border crisis is so dire that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting our help as their agents are overwhelmed by the chaos,” he added.

Thousands of immigrants, most from Haiti, are reportedly gathered under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, waiting to be processed by the Border Patrol to ask for asylum.

But after a CBP spokesman told Texas news outlets the agency had received no directives to shut down ports of entry, Abbott said the Biden administration had flip-flopped and was pursuing a different strategy that makes it easier for people to illegally cross into Texas.

“The Biden Administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,” Abbott said. “I have directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to maintain their presence at and around ports of entry to deter crossings."

At Abbott’s urging, the Texas Legislature this year approved more than $2 billion for border security.

Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March wherein thousands of Texas state troopers and Texas National Guard troops have been sent to the border to arrest immigrants who have illegally entered the country.

Of the funding approved by the Legislature, $750 million is allocated for the construction of fences on state-owned land and private land owned by people who agree to have the barriers constructed on their property.

Abbott’s goal is for Texas law enforcement to arrest immigrants who go over or around the fences on misdemeanor trespassing charges to deter others from entering the state.

More than 400 immigrants who tried to evade law enforcement amid the thick brush of South Texas, rather than turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents as is typical of asylum seekers, have been arrested for trespassing and sent to a state prison in Dilley that is now only being used to house immigrants.

Nearing the end of the fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021), the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 1.5 million immigrants at the Southwest border, the most since FY 2000 when it arrested over 1.6 million, though the number is inflated by people who have been caught crossing multiple times.

Though Abbott and other Republicans portray the situation as a crisis, the Biden administration is not allowing most immigrants to stay in the country after taking them into custody.

Biden has continued a regime known as Title 42 started by President Donald Trump that uses the pandemic as grounds to promptly expel single adults and some families.

But a federal judge on Thursday ordered Biden to stop using the policy. He found immigrants should not be expelled without getting a chance to apply for asylum. The judge stayed the order until Sept. 30 to give the government a chance to appeal.

In every year throughout the 1990s, except 1994, the number of immigrants Border Patrol arrested at the Southwest border exceeded 1 million.

Large numbers of Haitians are fleeing their country on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, crowding onto small boats and heading for Mexico and Florida as the country’s economy has collapsed.

Haiti has been thrown into chaos by the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a 7.2 earthquake that struck near the capital Port-au-Prince on Aug. 14 that killed more than 2,000 people, injured more than 12,200 and destroyed numerous homes and buildings.

Days after the quake a tropical storm dumped heavy rain on Haitians searching through rubble for their missing relatives.

Follow Cameron Langford on Twitter

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