Texas Governor Greg Abbott says Texas taxpayers are spending $10 billion on the state's border security operations, and the state cannot afford another four years of chaos at the border. said.
Mr. Abbott told the Post in an exclusive interview that he believes Vice President Kamala Harris, if elected, will not cooperate with border security.
As evidence, Harris has been invited numerous times to tour the Texas border, but “she has never responded,” he said.
Even though Biden gave her responsibility for stemming the flow of illegal immigration, “she refused to step up,” he said.
Abbott's border enforcement operation, dubbed “Operation Lone Star,” has apprehended more than 500,000 illegal immigrants, made 46,000 criminal arrests and seized more than 521 million lethal doses of fentanyl since its inception in 2021. Texas authorities announced that.
The governor also bused more than 119,000 immigrants to sanctuary cities, including New York City, bringing the total to 45,900 immigrants in just two years.
But Texas can't afford to keep paying that cost, he said.
“Texas has stepped up its efforts to address the Biden-Harris Administration’s denial of border security by taking well over $10 billion in private funds for border security out of the pockets of Texas taxpayers.” “We are putting out the following,” he said. Abbott.
“We can't go through another four years,” he added.
In March 2021, Harris was tasked with addressing the “root causes of immigration” to stem the flow of illegal immigration. But then millions of people crossed the border illegally at record levels.
The entry of illegal immigrants has slowed in recent months after the Biden-Harris administration introduced new restrictions on asylum access, with Border Patrol agents recording encounters with about 58,000 migrants in August. This is down from 250,000 people in December.
Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has allowed 1.3 million immigrants to enter the United States by flying directly or using a phone app at the border.
Harris has visited the border twice during her tenure as vice president, once in June 2021 in El Paso, Texas, and once on Friday with a campaign stop in the remote desert of Douglas, Arizona.
During her visit to El Paso, border officials who accompanied her on the trip previously told the Post they were instructed to disinfect areas and remove migrants from the streets to hide the severity of the crisis.
But Abbott has sent Harris “several invitations” to see the Texas border crisis firsthand since it escalated in 2022, but has never received a response. He said he had not.
“Despite the invitation, there wasn't really any conversation… She ignored the primary responsibility given to her by President Biden to do something about the illegal immigration process,” Abbott said.
During her campaign, Harris claimed to have targeted cartels and touted her work as a prosecutor in the “border state” of California, as the state's attorney general and San Francisco district attorney.
Despite last-minute efforts, Abbott predicts a Harris presidency will still result in an uncontrolled flow of illegal immigration.
“America cannot continue to be the country we are today if we have four more years of Kamala Harris. This is because of the illegal immigration policies that Kamala Harris has allowed to threaten our country and our future. “It's a line in the sand that Americans have to realize is at stake,” Abbott said.
“We must close our borders, and that starts with electing Donald Trump as president.”
A Harris campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
