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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is touting a sharp drop in border crossings in 2024, arguing that it is due to the efforts of his state rather than the policies of the Biden administration, which he says have hurt, not helped, the effort to secure the border as the administration has sought to “tear down” what Texas has done.
“Texas has the largest border of any state in the United States of America. And, in the early years of the Biden administration, it was Texas that was being overrun by the illegal immigration policies that were promoted and implemented by [President] Biden and by [Vice President Kamala] Harris,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Abbott pursued an aggressive strategy under Operation Lone Star, in which he surged troops and resources to the border, building its own border wall after the Biden administration stopped construction, setting up buoys in the Rio Grande and installing razor wire fence. It has led to a number of legal battles in court between the state and the Biden administration. The White House accused Abbott of putting migrants and Border Patrol at risk and impeding federal law enforcement.
BORDER OFFICIALS REVEAL WHICH FOREIGN GANG THEY ARE MAKING KEY ‘PRIORITY’ AMID CRIMES IN MULTIPLE STATES
After three years of a historic crisis at the southern border, with records of encounters being repeatedly smashed since Biden entered the White House, numbers dropped dramatically over the summer.
The White House tied the sharp drop in encounters to an executive order Biden signed in June which restricted asylum entries into the U.S. — with encounters in July the lowest since September 2020.
The administration has argued that it needs more funding and reforms from Congress, but that Republicans have voted against them for political purposes. Specifically, officials have cited a bipartisan bill that would have increased funding while putting some limits on entries. It has failed to make it out of the Senate.
“For months, the…
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