In an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) described Texas’ border security challenges as a “problem [that] is not going away,” as 20,000 people have already been apprehended this year crossing illegally.

Abbott first discussed the recent ruling by Judge Andrew Hanen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, which held that  the plan President Barack Obama announced last November to grant amnesty via executive order to millions of illegal immigrants was not something that he was authorized to do under the law. In his final weeks as Attorney General, Abbott had filed a lawsuit against this executive amnesty, which twenty-five states ultimately joined.

Abbott said that he expected the case to “continue all the way to the Supreme Court,” but repeated his previous comments that he was “confident” that his side would continue to prevail.

The reason he filed the lawsuit, and the reason that the issue was so critical for Texas, according to Abbott, is the ongoing problems with people continuing to cross our border illegally. What needs to happen, said Abbott, is that Congress needs to “fulfill its responsibility to solve the problem.”

“We all saw what happened on the Texas border last summer, but we need to understand that the problem is not going away,” said Abbott.

“Already this calendar year, since January 1, we have had more than 20,000 people come across the border, apprehended, unauthorized. And so we have an ongoing problem on the border that Congress must step up and solve.”

Schieffer also asked Abbott what he plans to do with the estimated 800,000 illegal immigrants who are already in Texas. Abbott replied that in addition to Congress acting to fund border security and address the immigration issue, “the president himself said as these people were coming across the border that he would repatriate them as soon as possible. So, we need to see whether or not the president himself is going to live up to the commitment that he made.”

Abbott also discussed his border security plan, which has won praise from grassroots activists, as Breitbart Texas reported.

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.