Migrant camp grows as Abbott signs border bill
$1.8B package includes funding for state’s wall, deployment of troops
Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed a $1.8 billion border security package into law, funding his plan to deter migrants from crossing the border by building a wall and jailing them on state trespassing charges — and again saying Texas is stepping up to do what the Biden administration won’t as thousands of migrants have crossed the border in recent days.
“It is the federal government’s job to secure our border. But the Biden administration has failed to do its job,” Abbott said during an event in Fort Worth. “These funds are needed because the Biden administration’s open border policies have opened the floodgates to illegal immigration, to crime, to human trafficking, to drug smuggling.”
The signing comes as the Biden administration boosts the Border Patrol in Del Rio, where as many as 12,000 migrants, mostly Haitian asylum seekers, are camped out under an international bridge. U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday also moved to reroute cross-border traffic from Del Rio to Eagle Pass, saying the shift was necessary to respond to urgent safety and security needs.
Despite Abbott’s assertion, the Biden administration reportedly plans to step up deportation of Haitians, contrary to pleas from Democrats and advocates to end the
practice.
Also on Friday, the Department of Homeland Security appealed a court decision ordering it to stop immediately expelling families seeking refuge in the U.S. by using a public health order enacted due to the coronavirus. The order was issued by former President Donald Trump and has been used by Border Patrol to immediately turn away most of the migrants encountered crossing the border this year.
The spending bill, which brings Texas’ two-year border security budget to nearly $3 billion, sets aside $1 billion for the construction of a barrier along parts of the border and more than $450 million to continue deploying a surge of National Guard members and Department of Public Safety troopers to the region.
It also aims to provide relief for the network of courts and detention facilities that are tasked with processing and detaining migrants arrested on state charges, setting aside $32 million for the Office of Court Administration to hire new visiting judges, public defenders, court interpreters and other court staff.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which currently sends migrants to detention facilities in Frio and Hidalgo counties, will also receive funds to convert additional facilities for the same use. And $170 million is allocated to establish and staff three county-level processing and intake centers along the border, according to Abbott’s office.
‘Uncertainty and indecision’
The new funding comes as local officials scramble to get control of the situation in Del Rio, where Mayor Bruno Lozano declared a state of disaster and said he would move to close the bridge, though the migrants are not using it to cross the Rio Grande. Lozano was tweeting at the president, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security about the rapidly growing migrant camp this week.
“President Biden, have you been briefed on the ongoing crisis yet?” Lozano, a Democrat, tweeted on Thursday evening.
Abbott said during the bill signing on Friday that officials with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security had told him they plan to transport migrants from Del Rio to Arizona, California and possibly Laredo. The agencies did not respond to a request for comment about the plan on Friday.
“There’s nothing but uncertainty and indecision by the Biden administration about what exactly they’re going to do,” Abbott said.
Biden has not spoken publicly about the situation in Del Rio. For weeks, the president has said his administration is working to build a more “humane” immigration system after Trump. Biden has been especially focused on beefing up the asylum system to more swiftly process the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived at the border seeking shelter this year.
On Friday, the president tweeted out a pre-taped video with a statement celebrating Citizenship Day.
“Immigrants come to America from different circumstances, but every generation has made us stronger,” he said. “This Citizenship Day serves as a reminder that it’s up to us to ensure we remain a country worthy of the dreams and aspirations of immigrants from around the world.”
Democrats and immigration advocates have stressed that the situation in Del Rio is a humanitarian crisis. Most of those who have arrived in recent days are from Haiti, which has been wracked by political upheaval and was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake Aug. 14 that killed more than 2,000.
A group of 50 House Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green of Houston, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday urging the administration to stop deporting Haitians and offer those at the border humanitarian parole, writing that the conditions in Haiti make safe return to the country “completely impossible.”
Nevertheless, the White House plans to ramp up deportations, NBC News reported Friday, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement set to fly eight deportation flights to Haiti next week. The plan calls to increase that number to 10 per week, NBC News reported.
The flights, which had been paused after the earthquake, had just restarted in recent days as Haitians began to arrive in Del Rio.
Cruz: ‘Most horrific thing’
Texas Democrats accused Abbott of using the border to deflect from his own problems as the state hits 60,000 coronavirus deaths.
“Abbott’s failures are catching up with him, and he’s terrified that we will vote him out of office in just over a year,” said Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa. “So he’s doing what he always does: trying to distract from his massive failures by pointing the finger at immigrants and drumming up fear around our borders.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized Biden for months over his handling of the border.
“It is the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said during a Fox News interview after visiting the Del Rio bridge.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a San Antonio Republican, appeared on Fox News urging Abbott to act on his own to “secure the border” and accusing Biden of “willfully disregarding his duty to enforce the laws of the United States.”
“Not only is it impeachable, but I believe the governor of Texas ought to start disregarding this president and start taking into our own hands in Texas the need to secure the border of the United States for the welfare of the people,” Roy said.
The new border security funding in Texas comes out of an extra $8 billion lawmakers have to spend after Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar issued a revised revenue estimate in July. The state has now more than tripled its most recent $800 million, two-year border security budget.