Gov. Greg Abbott
By BETHANY BLANKLEY
THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR
(The Center Square) — President Joe Biden hasn’t responded to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s numerous requests for help at the southern border, the Republican governor says.
During President Biden’s first visit to the border in El Paso earlier this month, Gov. Abbott provided the president a list of five solutions he says will help secure the border. Gov. Abbott said he hasn’t received a response to what he considers a solvable problem that entails enforcing existing laws established by Congress.
In response to Biden administration policies instructing Border Patrol agents to release illegal foreign nationals into the U.S., the majority of whom are being released in Texas, Gov. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021. Since then, law enforcement officers have apprehended more than 343,000 people from more than 150 countries and made more than 23,000 criminal arrests with over 21,000 felony charges reported, as of Jan. 20, 2023, the governor’s office reported.
“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” Gov. Abbott said. “Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Biden’s open border policies.”
Apprehending human smugglers is a daily occurrence as sheriffs and Department of Public Safety troopers identify foreign nationals and U.S. citizens responding to lucrative ads on social media offering to pay them to pick up people at drop off points along major highways and back roads in rural Texas, law enforcement officers told The Center Square.
