Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, welcomed President Joe Biden to El Paso, Texas with a letter that included proposed solutions to the border crisis. Abbott, an outspoken critic of Biden‘s border policies, took the opportunity to express his disappointment with the President‘s delayed visit to the border.
He suggested that Biden‘s visit was “too late“ to address the problems facing the US–Mexico border. The Governor‘s letter to Biden included a call to action to resolve the crisis, while also admonishing the President for not acting sooner. Biden‘s visit to the border marks his first since assuming office. This is an important step in the ongoing process to address the humanitarian and security concerns at the US–Mexico border.
Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings,” the letter read. “Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.”
Abbott told the DCNF that he chose to confront the president personally due to Biden’s handling of the border, which Abbott argued had greatly harmed his state of Texas.
“The President announced on Thursday that he was gonna be coming to the border and we didn’t hear from him. He said he was gonna meet with local officials. Last night, a staff person in my office received an invitation from the president’s office for me to greet the president at the tarmac, which I did do as I always do,” Abbott said after speaking with Biden, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Democratic Texas Reps. Veronica Escobar, Henry Cuellar and Vicente González.
“But I wanted to use the opportunity to express to the president the damage that he’s caused in the state of Texas and the solutions that he could deploy today to eliminate that damage, to restore the immigration system to an orderly system and to eliminate illegal immigration,” he added.
Abbott urged the President to take action to address the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. Abbott suggested the resumption of construction of the border wall in Texas, full implementation of Title 42, the public health order used to immediately expel certain illegal immigrants during the Trump administration, and the designation of Mexican cartels as foreign terrorists.
Abbott also pointed out that the city visited by the President had been “sanitized“ of the migrant camps that had overrun downtown El Paso, in order to shield the Biden from the daily chaos experienced by Texans.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
