Tx AG Biden putting Texans at risk
TX Attorney General: Joe Biden’s immigration policies are putting Texans ‘at risk’
As a massive influx of migrants continues to make its way to the southern border, federal, state, and local authorities are finding their resources strained beyond capacity, and now one prominent leader in the region is speaking out.
During a Friday episode of Fox News’ The Faulkner Focus, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declared that President Joe Biden is causing the emerging border crisis which is putting the health and well-being of his state’s citizens at risk.
After taking a series of executive actions designed to reverse Trump-era immigration measures, migrants have been surging to the border in staggering numbers, particularly unaccompanied minors, as NPR noted.
Despite the refusal of administration officials to declare the situation a crisis, the facts on the ground and federal actions in response seem to tell a different story, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement now asking for volunteers to be sent to south Texas, where a migrant detention complex is reportedly “seven times over capacity,” according to the Daily Mail.
In speaking with host Harris Faulkner, Paxton outlined the numerous ways in which Biden’s essentially open borders policy is endangering Americans, including “the spread of COVID, human trafficking, increase in drug trafficking, increase of crime and just general chaos,” adding:
It is so sad because we’ve been dealing with this COVID issue for almost a year now and we put all these restrictions on Americans’ businesses and travel and it’s affected our lives in so many negative ways, and yet for some reason we’ve opened up the border and risked our population along the border, but really as they spread through my state and across the country, we put people’s health at risk and putting us at increased risk for a spike in COVID and it doesn’t make any sense.
Paxton is not alone in his concerns about coronavirus testing and mitigation protocols – or lack thereof – as they pertain to migrants making their way to the southern border.
According to Brownsville, Texas spokesperson Felipe Romero, 185 migrants who had been released and tested at the city’s bus terminal tested positive for COVID-19, Fox News reported, a revelation that lends additional factual support to Paxton’s alarm.
Congressional Republicans are increasing their calls for answers and accountability from the Biden administration over a situation they argue is spiraling out of control, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) demanding a hearing on the migrant surge and delcaring:
There is a crisis on the southern border. It is in fact a full-blown emergency.
While every administration has the right to pursue policy changes within the parameters set out in statute, when those changes result in elevated levels of unrestricted, illegal border crossings, then it’s critical that the administration provide an explanation to Congress and to the American people.
Though more charitable observers might assume that the arrival of this latest wave of migrants is something of self-inflicted, yet unanticipated, challenge, others suspect that an injection of people whose favor – and potential future votes – might be gained with an open door to the United States was part of the Democrats’ plan all along.