Abbott deploys Guard to counter Biden 'open border policies'

FPI / March 8, 2021

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has deployed the National Guard in response to the crisis at the southern border which he said gets worse by the day due to Joe Biden's "open border policies."

Abbott on Saturday said he launched Operation Lone Star “to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas.” The operation will integrate the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) with the National Guard, Abbott said.

Abbott ordered the deployment of air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas.

“The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” Abbott said.

“Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.”

Texas Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar said that Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 10,000 migrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector during a seven-day period ending on Wednesday.

“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” Cuellar said. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”

Brownsville officials said that six percent of the migrants being released at the city's bus station to obtain transportation into the U.S. interior are testing positive for covid, Breitbart News reported. Brownsville officials said they do not have the authority to prevent those who test positive from boarding buses to travel into the U.S. interior.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden's White House has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop issuing public safety alerts which warned residents about violent criminal illegal immigrants.

“There's really no rationale for locking this account other than to discourage public reporting of obvious safety threats. The Biden administration will continue to claim that it's focused on dangerous illegal aliens, but this move illustrates that they're just not serious,” said Jon Feere, a senior adviser to ICE during the Trump administration.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde told the Washington Examiner: "Once again, it appears the Biden administration is putting open borders policies over the safety and security of American citizens. Locking the ICE alerts account prevents the public from receiving critical information about criminal aliens. I fear it will be American lives that will pay the price for the administration's reckless policies."

Free Press International