Greg Abbott

Governor Greg Abbott today met with Nuevo León Governor Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda at the Colombia Solidarity International Bridge in Laredo to discuss ...

Read the Governor's Memorandum of Understanding in Spanish. This historic memorandum of understanding between Texas and Nuevo León is a major step in the Lone Star State's efforts to secure the border in the federal government's absence.” Read the Governor's Memorandum of Understanding in English.

A group of undocumented migrants arrived in the nation's capital Wednesday on a bus sent by Texas Gov.

Because again, enforcement of our country’s immigration laws lies with the federal government, not a state." DHS officials have warned of a potential surge of more than 170,000 migrants if Title 42 is lifted. "His own office admits that a migrant would need to voluntarily be transported and that he can’t compel them to. Last week, Psaki said she was "not aware of what authority the governor would be doing that under" when asked about Abbott's busing plan and if the administration would help the migrants find a place to stay once they arrive in D.C. Abbott, who is running for re-election in November, said last week that he had directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to charter buses to transport the migrants to D.C. "Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden Administration’s failure to secure our border," he said Wednesday. "By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden Administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border," Abbott said in a statement Wednesday, adding that another busload is en route.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott relented Wednesday, agreeing to ease the additional safety inspections of trucks at the busiest border entry point near Laredo in ...

He credited García for making commitments to beef up patrols along the border south of the Rio Grande. Abbott blames the Biden administration for not doing more to secure the border. “Because otherwise those dangerous vehicles, with dangerous brakes could have run into a Texan walking across the road or driving down a road.” Since he implemented the more thorough inspections a week ago, truck traffic at many of the Texas ports of entry have stalled. Even Abbott’s biggest allies began to turn against his policy over the last few days. “Since Nuevo Leon has increased its security on its side of the border, the Texas Department of Public Safety can return to its previous practice of random searches of vehicles crossing the the bridge from Neuvo Leon,” Abbott said with the Nuevo Leon Gov. Samuel Alejandro García Sepulveda at his side.

The Texas governor has unveiled a battery of ploys aimed at elevating the border as a political issue — and at elevating himself.

Patrick proceeded to loop this into the casual version of the toxic, racist White replacement theory that’s become popular on the right, claiming that this was a function of “Democrats and the left want[ing] to take over the country.” That would mean more than 60 million undocumented immigrants in the United States — twice the current population of Texas. This claim is indefensible, based on outlier analyses of the number of undocumented people in the country (in reality about 11 million) and the same sort of misrepresentation of apprehension data mentioned above. Trump’s loss gave an opportunity for other politicians to consume the oxygen of immigration politics. The increase in apprehensions raised the issue’s salience and Biden’s unpopularity made him a useful foil. Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) made one of the more ridiculous claims in the recent history of immigration fearmongering. Last year, Abbott announced a border-enforcement program called Operation Lone Star. It deployed state law enforcement and members of the National Guard to border regions “to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas,” as a news release from the governor’s office put it. But, in keeping with the way critics of the Biden administration have relied on inflated or misleading top-line numbers to create an exaggerated sense of how many migrants remain in the country, Abbott’s team has itself offered some egregiously misleading figures. In other words, continuing to focus on the border plays to Abbott’s strengths as the Republican primary and then the general election approach. The result has been a dramatic slowdown in the transit of goods into Texas, with wait times to enter rising from about three hours to more than 12. The state’s agriculture commissioner Sid Miller (R) sent Abbott a letter Tuesday calling for the enhanced inspections to end. When Donald Trump left office at the beginning of last year, one large chunk of his rhetorical repertoire was up for grabs. A lot of attention-grabbing bluster from the incumbent governor who’s seeking reelection this year.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas will stop the controversial inspections of cargo trucks that have snarled border traffic at just one international ...

Abbott ordered the inspections April 6 in response to the federal government planning to end the Title 42 public health authority. “Governor Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country,” the statement read. “If you want relief from the clogged border, you need to call President Biden and tell him to maintain the Title 42 policy that has been in place for years.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott isn't trying to catch smugglers. His truck inspections are delaying goods, simply to boost his reelection chances.

In response to the trucking border crisis, the agency said its agents are doing their job inspecting vehicles at points of entry. They were provided food and water and while a long journey, the migrants said it was a good trip.” That may be the case. That means the “illegal immigrants” he’s transporting aren’t really “illegal” anymore and that these folks are just choosing to go to D.C. – for free. The bus ride was over 30 hours, the migrants said. What Abbott has done is create a circus filled with a mix of stunts and practical crackdowns, like having state police arrest migrants on misdemeanor trespassing charges, sending thousands of National Guard troops to the border and building a wall with state dollars. Abbott is in fact bussing immigrants to D.C., but he failed to explain that the free rides are voluntary and that they’re only offered to those who’ve already gone through the federal immigration process. But are Abbott and his people dumb enough to think the cartels would actually continue to use commercial trucks after he made a huge public circus out of his operation? Case in point. Texas’ safety troopers have removed 646 trucks from service out of 2,685 inspected so far. Nope. The taxpayer-funded troopers instead are taking trucks out of service for violations that include “burned-out headlights or taillights, defective brakes or flawed tires,” according to The Wall Street Journal and other media reports. In protest, the truckers are blocking key points of entry, bringing international traffic and trade to a halt.

The brigadier general steps down from commanding Operation Lone Star's military efforts after five months.

Leaders have also been busy improving previous problems with pay, poor living conditions and a lack of appropriate gear due to the task force’s rapid expansion last year. When tickets go on sale in May, Tribune members will save big. Some of the Guardsmen at the border have argued the mission was a political ploy by Abbott, a Republican seeking his third term as governor in November. A January survey completed by an Air National Guard unit deployed to the border was leaked to Military Times and The Texas Tribune and revealed widespread discontent with the operation. The most recent move, according to the TMD spokesperson, was a “realign[ment] of leadership roles” that came as part of Suelzer’s “initial command assessment of the entire Texas Military Department.” Brig. Gen. Monie Ulis relinquished command of the task force controlling the mission to “focus solely on his [full-time] responsibilities” as the state’s deputy adjutant general overseeing its Army National Guard forces, a Texas Military Department spokesperson confirmed in an unsigned email. The Texas National Guard has reassigned yet another top general associated with the state’s mission to secure its border with Mexico, dubbed Operation Lone Star, Military Times and The Texas Tribune have learned.