Texans May Be Prone to Leave State if Gov
Claims on Border Crime Wave Aren't Stretch

Capitol Inside
June 16, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott ran the risk of sparking a massive exodus of residents from the Lone Star State when he sought to make it appear like Mexican drug lords, foreign terrorists and other violent outlaws were taking over the Texas side of the Mexican border as a consequence of Democratic President Joe Biden's policies.

In a photo op for the ages with more than 30 GOP lawmakers as backdrop props, Abbott sounded the alarm on a surge in migrants from the south that he vowed to fight with a new wall on the Rio Grande that he will control and hopes to fund primarily with donations online from private sources.

Texans from all parts of the state might feel cause to flee, however, if they Abbott at his word with the frightening portrayal of border areas as danger zones in the same league with sister cities that have been awash in drug-fueled violence throughout the past decade. But Democrats and Republicans who are still critical thinkers won't know to what believe after the off-Broadway production that the governor's press conference turned out to be today in a packed room at the Texas Capitol.

The prevailing sentiment at the statehouse was that the media event was the unofficial launching pad for an Abbott campaign for president in 2024. After rarely if ever bringing up Donald Trump's name for five months in regular session this year, Abbott mentioned the ex-president several times with praise for his leadership on border security. The governor's dire warnings seemed at times like recycled talking points from the first Trump campaign in 2016 when he captured the White House with a signature strategy that created and fueled fears about migrants flooding into Texas to commit crime.

But Abbott spiced up the narrative by making a current surge in illegal border crossing sound substantially worse than Trump had ever managed to do. Abbott painted a picture of Texas border towns being taken over by murderous drug dealers and other dangerous thugs who'd entered the U.S. illegally so they could pillage, plunder and pull guns on horrified border residents after breaking into their homes.

Abbott received several ovations from the Republicans who were stacked up in three rows behind him with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, state House Speaker Dade Phelan and the chief Senate and House budget writers seated beside him at a table at the news conference in a packed and relatively rowdy room at the Texas Capitol.

Abbott and the four powerful allies gave the event a ceremonial aura when they signed a letter authorizing the expenditures of $250 million as seed money for the resurrection of the barrier that Trump had promised to build and never came close to completing.

Some of the GOP legislators who served as extras without speaking parts acknowledged privately that they really hadn't been that sure on what they were getting into with their appearances at the border wall revival christening at Abbott's request. But none of the lawmakers who turned out to give their official blessings to Abbott's ambitious border plans showed any signs of skepticism or problems with his claims at the press conference that played out like a clinic in Hollywood liberties.

Abbott for example said that local officials in border area had been pleading for help from the state in places that were being strangled by crime that dangerous migrants are committing. The truth is that the vast majority of mayors, county judges and other local officials have said they can handle the influx without the need for backup by the state.

Abbott added a new twist to the border horror saga - claiming without evidence that organized criminals and terrorists across the globe have been flying into Mexico so they can enter the U.S. from the south by blending into the rivers of migrants that the governor envisions.