Texas launches new effort this week to secure border as Title 42 ends
AUSTIN (CBSNewsTexas.com) – To prepare for the end of Title 42, Governor Greg Abbott launched a new effort to secure the border this week.
During a news conference just after sunrise Monday, the Governor held a news conference with military aircraft as the backdrop. "We are deploying a new National Guard unit. It's called Texas Tactical Border Force."
A total of 450 National Guard Members are in this new unit.
Many of them boarded C-130 aircraft and Blackhawk helicopters on Monday heading to hot spots along the southern border in El Paso, Brownsville and other areas.
The Governor said they'll have night vision equipment and riot gear to intercept and turn back migrants who try to enter Texas.
He sharply criticized the Biden administration for ending the Trump era policy that allowed the U.S. to return migrants back to their home countries. "President Biden's open border policies are going to cause a catastrophic disaster in the United States."
On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents stopped ten thousand migrants, one of its busiest days ever according to the Associated Press.
Abbott said the Biden administration warned 13,000 could enter the U.S. every day after Title 42 ends.
In addition, Abbott said he's hoping new bills advancing in the Texas Legislature will make it a felony for a migrant to cross into Texas illegally. "That felony will entitle us to do one of two things: either to arrest these people and jail them for a felony or alternatively, to return them back to Mexico."
He also said in another bill, anyone caught smuggling migrants would face a felony and a minimum of ten years in prison. "That's reprehensible and we want to shut it down."
The Governor praised Operation Lone Star, the state's existing $4 billion program to secure the border.
Since it began, Abbott said Texas DPS Troopers and National Guard members have turned back more than 37,000 people who tried to enter the U.S. illegally.
They apprehended more than 37,000 who did cross into Texas illegally and arrested 27,000 criminals including cartel gang members.
The Governor said the state also seized enough fentanyl to kill every U.S. citizen.
On Thursday afternoon, hours before Title 42 was set to end, House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol passed a new border security bill that would include resuming construction of a border wall.
Republican North Texas Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne told me last week, she'd support the legislation. "I'm talking to the people who are actually down there trying to enforce our laws. And what they have said is a physical barrier that prevents people from crossing over that at least targets them to an area that they can police is helpful. I'm supportive of it."
Democratic Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett voted against the bill.
In an interview with CBS News Texas last week, she said she met with immigration lawyers, who told her they've seen up close what has been a problem for years: an immigration court system backlogged and overwhelmed. "They talked to me about the fact that most of the cases that they were already behind in the immigration courts. Now that time has doubled or tripled. We've got to put the resources in."
The Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate will likely reject the House Republican bill.
Democrats and Republicans, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, recently met with Mexico's President and Cabinet to discuss this issue.
