EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Officials with Operation Lone Star announced that more than 9,000 criminal arrests have been made at the U.S. – Mexico border since march, saying that more than 7,200 of those arrests were for felony offenses.
Exclusive: Gov. Greg Abbott talks El Paso, job growth “Texas will remain the economic engine of the U.S. “
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), four MS-13 gang members were caught trying cross the border in the Rio Grande Valley last week.
In addition, officials with Operation Lone Star apprehended more than 160,000 migrants for crossing the border illegally, and seized nearly $6 million worth of drugs like Cocaine, Meth, Marijuana and Fentanyl.
Operation Lone Star was launched by Governor Greg Abbott eight months ago in an effort to secure the Southern border.
In an exclusive interview, Governor Abbott said that the state of Texas has had to take matters into it’s own hands to ensure the safety of the people of Texas, and across the nation.
“We’re having to respond in an extraordinary way because of the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce the immigration laws of the United States. Because he’s not enforcing the immigration laws. We are seeing a record number of people coming across the border including some people that have been arrested recently like MS-13 gang members, people who have been arrested for murder and for rape. It’s getting very dangerous including having people coming from more than 150 countries across the globe. You might remember the Haitian crisis that happened in Del Rio, we have additional caravans coming as we speak and as a result of that we’ve mobilized 10,000 National Guard and DPS officers to be on the border. They’re putting up these large massive containers that you see on 18 wheelers or theses container ships to form a blockade. They are laying down razor wire to prevent people from coming across the shore. They should be going through the ports of entry as required by federal law and on top of that we are building the Texas border wall because all law enforcement say that the border wall does provide a deterrent and a funneling method for people coming across the border illegally.”
Governor Greg Abbott
Governor Abbott touts the long line of shipping containers that are set up on the banks of Rio Grande as the ‘Steel Curtain.’
As for the Texas border wall, according to abbot, more than $54 million dollars has already been donated to build it, that’s in addition to the $250 million down payment he allocated to get it started.
Abbott saying that Texas is being forced to physically secure the southern border because the federal government refuses to enforce the laws passed by congress.
“The Biden administration they want to have open border policy and every time we take some action that will actually enforce the immigration laws passed by congress, the Biden administration tries to challenge us. For example I issued an executive order to try to protect the health and safety of Texans and the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against me and got a federal judge to rule against my executive order. But the main way they push back is by failing to step up and secure the border which is required by federal law.”
Governor Greg Abbott
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