Texas Gov. Abbott, 10 More to Visit Border amid Continuing Crisis

Texas Governor Greg Abbott will join Republican governors from 10 other states at the border with Mexico to discuss the ever-worsening migrant crisis. A live stream of the noon-Wednesday press conference is expected.

Governor Abbott is expected to be joined by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. The 11 will be briefed by Texas Department of Public Safety Director, Colonel Steve McCraw along with Texas National Guard General Monie R. Ulis, and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.

The press conference will take place near Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector. Of the nearly 1.5 million migrants apprehended in the first 11 months of Fiscal Year 2021, which began on October 1, 2020, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents apprehended nearly 494,000 — an increase of 542 percent over the same period in FY2020.

In an appearance on Fox and Friends on Tuesday, Governor Stitt (R-OK) said that his state is directly impacted by what he called “Biden’s failed immigration policies.” “In Oklahoma, we’ve seen an increase in drug & human trafficking,” the Oklahoma governor tweeted.

In July, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined Governor Abbott in Del Rio, Texas, where he talked with his state’s Highway Patrol troopers and National Guardsmen deployed to the border to assist Texas’ efforts to secure the border, Breitbart Texas reported. DeSantis told Abbott he learned that 70 percent of the migrants apprehended in the Del Rio Sector were reportedly headed to Florida.

“I think those numbers are eye-popping,” the Florida governor said. “The number of these people coming across illegally, who are telling folks that their destination is Florida, obviously I knew we were going to get some, but I didn’t think it’d be a majority.”