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Governor Says Texas Fixed Border Crisis
But Still Expects Migrant Increase in Fall
Capitol Inside
August 28, 2024
After bragging at the Republican National Convention that Texas had eliminated illegal immigration, Governor Greg Abbott revealed on Tuesday that border security is no longer a major concern in the nation's largest state.
The Republican state leader declared victory for the Lone Star State in the war that he's been waging at the Rio Grande in an interview with Elizabeth Vargas on the conservative television station NewsNation.
“We’ve solved the Texas problem," Abbott said. "But the United States problem - that requires a new president to make sure that we are actually going to secure our border.”
Abbott explained that the historic Texas triumph at the U.S. border with Mexico was a result of the actions that he's taken including the busing of migrants to other states and the installation of obstacles like a wall at the river, buoys in the water and razor wire on the banks.
But the governor also gave the impression that Republicans might be corking champagne corks prematurely if took his words on NewsNation literally. Abbott dropped a bombshell when he told Vargas that he's having the state put razor wire on the Texas borders with New Mexico and other places in the U.S. to prevent cartels from routing migrants here through other states, according to a report in The Hill on Wednesday.
“They’re not able to make money in Texas like they are in New Mexico, Arizona and California, and that’s why, after we put up the resistance that we did, the cartels took their business to those other states,” Abbott said.
Abbott's forces on the border - for the record - placed concertina wire coils on an 18-mile stretch of the Rio Grande that separates Texas from New Mexico in El Paso. Texas hasn't actually installed any razor wire fencing on its boundaries with Oklahoma, Arkansas or Louisiana up to now. People can travel freely in and out of Texas from other U.S. states with the exception of the area with the Abbott fencing in the El Paso area.
Abbott's claim on Texas prompting smugglers to enter the U.S. through other states have some merit despite the deceptive nature of the presentation on the Fox News rival. Capitol Inside's ongoing examination of immigration at the southwestern border found that migrant apprehensions soared in Arizona after Texas began stringing razor wire fences up on the Rio Grande here. The migrant tally in Texas fell in concordance with a surge in Arizona based on data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Migrant apprehensions in New Mexico are included in the Border Patrol's statistics for Arizona.
But Abbott's attempt to take credit for plunging migrant rates in Texas in 2024 took a significant hit when the number of apprehensions in Arizona plummeted even more in the first seven months of the year than they did here.
While Abbott says the problem at the border has been solved by the state, he suggested in the exchange with Vargas that the state will be spending more on security at the Rio Grande instead of cutting back. Abbott for example ordered the Texas National Guard to triple the amount of razor wire that it has on the river on the same day last month that Kamala Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate for the White House after President Joe Biden withdrew from the competition. The governor told NewsNation that he plans to increase the floating buoys that the state has in the Rio Grande
Abbott vowed at the GOP convention in July that Texas would keep busing migrants to major American cities in other states despite the sharp drop in border crossings this year. Texas has transported about 120,000 migrants to other states in the U.S. in the past two years. Texas, however, didn't bus any migrants to other states last month despite the bold claim at the RNC.
But the problem may not be solved for long based on Abbott's comments on NewsNation. The governor said he expects a "higher volume" of migrants in the next few months - and he assured Vargas that Texas will start sending buses filled with them to other states when that happens.
more to come ...
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