Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) published an op-ed this week calling on the Democratic mayors of New York City and Washington, D.C. to get the Biden administration to act on the ongoing illegal immigration crisis.
In his piece, “NYC, DC mayors now see our border crisis is real. They should call on Biden to step up,” Abbott wrote about how President Joe Biden’s open border policies have caused a spike in “transnational criminal activity” across the United States. He has directed millions of dollars towards the National Guard and Department Of Public Safety to keep residents safe as the crisis surges. Abbott detailed that nearly 300,000 migrant apprehensions have occurred and more than 326 million lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized at the border.
As governor of a southern border state, I have had to deploy unprecedented amounts of state resources--including more than $3 billion over the past 18 months--to the Texas National Guard, Texas Department of Public Safety, and local partners to help address the president’s national security failure and ensure the safety of Texans.
In response to the Biden administration’s unconscionable disregard for the southern border, I launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in partnership with these state agencies to protect Texans in communities. Thousands of deployed troopers and guardsmen are utilizing air, ground, and tactical border assets to combat Mexican drug cartels and other criminals who smuggle drugs and people into the U.S.
As of late July, the mission has led to more than 290,000 migrant apprehensions and the seizure of nearly 326 million lethal doses of fentanyl--enough to kill almost every American. With Texas bearing the brunt of the president’s catastrophic failure, in April I directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to begin busing migrants to Washington, D.C. to provide relief to overrun border communities and bring the reality of the crisis to the federal government’s doorstep.
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Once Abbott began sending migrants to Democrat-controlled Washington, D.C. and New York City, the mayors of both cities complained.
It was not long before Mayor Bowser began decrying the mission after receiving only a fraction of what Texas law enforcement encounter each day along the border. Mayor Bowser went so far as to request indefinite federal assistance from the National Guard to help D.C. cope with the humanitarian crisis.
The mayors are not alone in their concern over the flow of migrants into their cities, with their Democratic counterparts in south Texas truly overwhelmed by the crisis…If the mayors of America’s most populous city and the nation’s capital are complaining about a few thousand migrants, imagine what these small border communities with more limited resources face on the frontlines.
Julio covered how New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he would send New Yorkers to Texas to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. This came in response to Abbott sending busloads of illegal immigrants from the southern border to NYC.
"I already called all of my friends in Texas and told them how to cast their vote. And I am deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to go to Texas and do some good old fashion door knocking because we have to, for the good of America, get him out of office," Adams said in a recent press conference.
Eric Adams says he is "deeply contemplating taking a busload of New Yorkers to Texas" to campaign against Greg Abbott in response to him busing 4,000 illegal migrants to his city. pic.twitter.com/0VqmQkREfM
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 9, 2022
On Wednesday, Abbott responded to Adams’ threat. In an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, Abbott said that he kind of “feels like Clint Eastwood.”
“Go ahead Mayor, make my day,” Abbott said in the interview. “There could hardly be anything better to aid my campaign against Beto O’Rourke than to have Beto O’Rourke have his campaign aided by a bunch of New Yorkers that will not be viewed very positively in Texas.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) reacts to NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) suggesting sending New Yorkers to Texas to help Beto O’Rourke (D) defeat him in the gubernatorial race:
— The Recount (@therecount) August 10, 2022
“Go ahead, Mayor, make my day.” pic.twitter.com/snKKDkt8SZ
Townhall also reported late last month how ashington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said the city has reached a “tipping point” with the influx of migrants Abbott sent to the city. Calling it a “humanitarian crisis,” Bowser said she would call on the National Guard to help process the thousands of migrants.
"We need space. We need the federal government to be involved so I've asked the deployment of the Guard as long as we need the Guard to deal with the humanitarian crisis that we expect to escalate. The number of people crossing the border seeking asylum, we expect to only go up," Bowser said.
“As Mayors Adams and Bowser recently acknowledged, the border crisis demands immediate and decisive federal action,” Abbott concluded in his piece. “I ask that they call on President Biden to stop dismissing this crisis and to honor his duty of preserving America’s national security.”
Spencer reported this month how a new Gallup poll showed that Biden’s border crisis has caused Americans to want to welcome fewer immigrants, including Democrat voters (via Gallup):
Americans' support for expanding immigration reached its all-time high of 34% two years ago and held there, at 33%, in 2021, before dipping to this year's 27%. Over the same two-year period, the desire to see immigration decreased has risen 10 points from its all-time low of 28%.
The preference for decreased immigration was highest in 1993 and 1995, at 65%. This coincided with a bipartisan focus on immigration, with then-President Bill Clinton pushing for strengthening border control and curtailing the hiring of migrants who entered the U.S. illegally, and the Republican governor of California at the time, Pete Wilson, supporting a statewide proposition that would exclude migrants there illegally from access to public services.
After dropping to 38% by 2000, Americans' desire for less immigration surged to 58% in October 2001. This was in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, carried out by men who were in the U.S. on nonimmigrant tourist, work or student visas.
Close to half of Americans typically continued to want less immigration through 2010, but no more than about four in 10 have since held that view.
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