Texas Governor Greg Abbott mocked President Joe Biden’s deployment of 1,500 military troops to the border who will have no authority to stop migrant crossings. The Biden administration announced the military would do paperwork and other administrative tasks.
“Biden says he will deploy 1,500 troops to the border — primarily to do paperwork,” Governor Abbott tweeted. “And only for 90 days.”
“This does nothing to stop illegal immigration,” the governor added. “I deployed up to 10,000 Texas National Guard to the border to fill the gaps created by Biden’s reckless open border policies.”
The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that the Biden administration requested assistance from the Department of Defense, Breitbart News reported.
“At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Austin approved a temporary Department of Defense (DoD) increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel to supplement U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts on the U.S. Southwest Border,” DOD Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement.
“For 90 days, these 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps, such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, until CBP can address these needs through contracted support,” the statement continued.
The expected surge of migrants crossing the border after the end of the Covid-era Title 42, expected on May 11, is already underway. Large numbers of mostly Venezuelan migrants are surging the border in South and West Texas.
In April, more migrants made their way across the border river into the Rio Grande Valley Sector than were apprehended in the previous two months combined, Breitbart Texas reported.
Leading the spike are the apprehensions during the past two weeks of more than 26,000 Venezuelan migrants who have been crossing the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to Brownsville, Texas. The Venezuelan migrant surge directly contradicts claims by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the border is not open.
The Venezuelan migrant surge quickly overwhelmed Border Patrol resources in the Brownsville area forcing the release of migrants onto nearby city streets, Breitbart Texas reported.
The more than 37,000 migrants apprehended in the RGV Sector in April are part of the nationwide surge that led to the apprehension of more than 183,000 migrants. This was the third straight month of increases in apprehensions following a two-month decline in January and February.
Governor Abbott responded to the surge in Brownsville by deploying additional DPS troopers and National Guard resources to attempt to deter or turn back migrants.
Breitbart Texas observed a large number of DPS Highway Patrol vehicles and National Guard trucks deploying to the banks of the Rio Grande near Brownsville on Saturday. Governor Greg Abbott ordered the special response force to the border as nearly 2,000 Venezuelan migrants cross the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, each day.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.