Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday the state isn’t “playing games anymore” at the southern border, and is using its own resources to curb the entry of migrants there.
In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Abbott said he’s deployed the National Guard as well as the Texas Department of Public Safety to the area.
“We are not playing games anymore,” he declared.
“We have a new program in place because the Biden administration plan is to catch and release. The Texas plan is to catch and to jail.”
According to Abbott, authorities are arresting and jailing migrants in a program that has already begun.
“It took a few weeks to set up because we had to set up an entire booking system to get judges involved in the process, and magistrate the people and had to open up a former prison that had a thousand jail beds that were starting to fill up,” he said.
“We are arresting people every single day and we are arresting for trespassing.”
Abbott said the state’s goal is “to continue arresting people that come across the border but at the same time surge more National Guard and more Texas Department of Public Safety officers to make sure that we are doing everything that we can as a state to secure the border.”
Last month, Abbott announced the state was putting $1 billion in its budget to strengthen border security because the federal government, under President Joe Biden’s administration, has failed to do so.
''Building the wall in Texas has officially begun,'' Abbott said at the time.
Abbott also signed a letter giving $250 million as a ''down payment'' for the construction.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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