Governor Greg Abbott claimed on Sunday that a crisis at the border has intensified as a product of President Joe Biden's new policy that's designed to spur a sharp reduction in illegal crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Abbott told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that the executive order that the White House imposed last week was having the opposite effect at the Rio Grande.
"Ever since the Biden order went into place, there's no slowing down of people crossing the border," the Texas governor said. "In fact it's just accelerating. So this is gaslighting our fellow Americans."
Abbott provided no data or other evidence to support the damning assessment of the new Biden policy that shuts down applications for legal asylum when the daily count of migrant encounters surpasses 2,500.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection hasn't updated the migrant tally since Biden issued the decree less than one week ago.
But Abbott argued that the president's new policy was destined to fail because it had no enforcement mechanism in place. "All that this new Biden policy is going to do is
actually attract and invite even more people to cross the border illegally," the Texas leader asserted in the Fox News interview.
"In fact it is making the border illegal crossings worse," Abbott contended in another remark that he failed to substantiate during the appearance on the Sunday morning show.
Bartiromo accused Biden of self-serving motives for initiating a policy just five months before the general election in an attempt to make it appear like he's taking significant action on a problem that conservatives say he's ignored. The Fox News personality suggested that cartels were doing an end-around the federal restrictions with a large jump in unaccompanied minors who are exempt under the new rules.
Bartiromo failed to challenge any of Abbott's unsubstantiated claims - and she nodded approvingly at the Texas governor's dire warnings and degrading of the American president. The talk show host helped Abbott promote a new public relations initiative in a new Texas list of the 10 "most wanted" immigrants in the state illegally.
When asked if Texas had noticed a change in the migrant flow with the new Biden policy in effect, Abbott said "none whatsoever" in response. The governor proceeded to describe how he thinks the federal order actually has had an adverse effect.
Abbott didn't cite any supporting information to demonstrate how the count of migrants has worsened here in the past five days. That appeared to be a guess in light of the fact that the CBP hasn't revealed the tally from the past week.
The Border Patrol recorded 128,884 apprehensions in April in Texas, Arizona and California combined. That equates to 4,296 on average per day across the entire southern border - and that would represent a reduction of 39 percent if the Biden edict works as planned.
Abbott may have based his claims, however, on the Texas tally in April when federal agents processed 53,326 migrants in the state's six regions. That amounts to only 1,778 crossings here on average each day that month. The governor would have a case if the 2,500 limit only applied to the Lone Star State.
The BP apprehended 513,937 migrants in Texas during the first seven months of the current fiscal year. That adds up to 2,424 per day on average. The number fell dramatically in recent months, however, as a result of restrictions that Mexico placed on foreign travel amid pressure from Biden earlier this year.
more to come ...
