Joe Biden’s trip to Texas marked the first time that the President visited the border during his time in office, spanning two years now. Texas Governor Greg Abbott did not take this trip for granted, as he was seen handing a letter to the President to criticize the border policies of the current administration.
In the letter, which has since been shared to Twitter by the governor, a plan is put forward for protecting the United State’s southern border against what many Republicans are calling an invasion. Greg Abbott makes it very clear that this visit only highlights the lack of attention that Biden has paid to the influx of migrants:
Hand-delivered a letter to President Biden today during his first visit to the border.
His trip is $20 billion too little & 2 years too late.
I’m calling on Biden to do his constitutional duty to protect our nation. pic.twitter.com/cy8xgh5EJ2
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 8, 2023
“Dear President Biden:
Your visit to our southern border with Mexico today is $20 billion too little and two years too late. Moreover, your visit avoids the sites where mass illegal immigration occurs and sidesteps the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies. Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis. This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted.”
Abbott also didn’t hold back from saying exactly what is on the minds of most Americans, that Donald Trump’s border policies were the most correct and safest policies that the country has had to date in relation to the border:
“Under your watch, by contrast, America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings. 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.”
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Next, Abbott lambasted the President for not performing his duty to protect the country and its citizens. Abbott also sees right through the public relations trip and understands that Biden does not want to make any meaningful policy changes:
“All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws. Halfway through your presidency, though, I can finally welcome you to the border. When you finish the photo-ops in a carefully stage-managed version of El Paso, you have a job to do.”
Abbott then goes on to list five bullet points of ways that the President needs to correct policy if the invasion at form south of the border will ever be slowed during this administration’s time in office:
- “You must comply with the many statutes mandating that various categories of aliens “shall” be detained, and end the practice of unlawfully paroling aliens en masse.
- You must stop sandbagging the implementation of the Remain-in-Mexico policy and Title 42 expulsions, and fully enforce those measures as the federal courts have ordered you to do.
- You must aggressively prosecute illegal entry between ports of entry, and allow ICE to remove illegal immigrants in accordance with existing federal laws.
- You must immediately resume construction of the border wall in the State of Texas, using the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for that purpose.
- You must designate the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”