Texas Governor Says Border Security Mission Saves Lives Across U.S.

AUSTIN, Texas — Governor Greg Abbott told Breitbart Texas that the state’s border security mission is saving lives across the nation by seizing fentanyl that slipped past Border Patrol and CBP. Operation Lone Star saved more lives by stopping nearly 25,000 criminal aliens from making their way into the U.S. interior, according to the state.

In a one-on-one interview with Breitbart Texas, Governor Abbott explained that the Texas Department of Public Safety seized enough fentanyl to “kill every man, woman, and child in the United States.”

“That’s fentanyl that got past the Border Patrol,” Abbott explained. “And had DPS not been there, there’s no telling how many more people in the country would have died because of fentanyl.”

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Glenn Hegar’s office reports that the efforts of Texas DPS troopers, criminal investigators, and intelligence specialists assigned to Operation Lone Star led to the seizure of 342 million lethal doses of fentanyl since March 2021.

Governor Abbott made the fight against the fentanyl crisis a legislative emergency item during his State of the State address earlier this month. In doing so, he asked the legislature for $4.6 billion to support the border security initiative. He also asked the legislature to codify into law, his executive order designating certain drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

“That gives the DPS and other law enforcement more tools to seize the assets of the drug cartels,” the governor stated.

Last week, Governor Abbott met in Austin with State Senator Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) and State Representative Ryan Guillen (D-Rio Grande City) to discuss the legislative emergency item. Birdwell serves as chairman of the State Senate’s Committee on Border Security while Guillen is the chairman of the State House’s Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee.

The leadership trio met with Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw, Texas Military Department Adjutant General Major General Thomas Suelzer, and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks to outline strategies needed to secure the state’s southern border.

In addition to reducing the threat posed by fentanyl to Americans across the country, Texas also stopped more than 330,000 got-aways from making their way into the U.S., Abbott stated in the interview. The apprehension of migrants who made it past Border Patrol agents led to the arrest of more than 25,000 people.

Some of these arrests by DPS troopers included people “wanted for murder and other very serious charges,” the governor explained. “So had they not been there, who knows who those people would have been and where they would have gone? And also, had DPS not been there, you would have had 24 to 25,000 criminals out on the streets of the United States somewhere.”

Texas Military Department officials previously told Breitbart Texas that approximately 30 percent of the migrants apprehended on Texas ranches 50 to 100 miles from the border have criminal histories. Many of these include murderers, rapists, child sex offenders, drug traffickers, and other dangerous criminals.

“[President Joe Biden] is living up to what he promised during his campaign and that’s open borders,” Abbott added, “and he’s succeeded at it quite well. That’s why Texas has done more than any state in the history of the United States to respond to the crisis caused by Joe Biden.”