Texas will be sending 1,000 more National Guard troops to border

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the state will send 1,000 additional National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help U.S. Border Patrol agents with border security.

They will work at detention facilities and ports of entry in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley — and be in addition to about 1,000 Texas troops already there.

“There is an escalating crisis at the border — a crisis Congress is refusing to fix,” Abbott said during a news conference with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen.

Friday’s news comes days after President Donald Trump announced that he plans to further crack down on immigration — and that millions of people illegally living in the country soon will be deported. Raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could start Sunday morning in some major cities.

More than 11 million undocumented immigrants are estimated to be living in the country, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Abbott said troops, who were being deployed Friday, will help at temporary holding facilities that the Department of Homeland Security will be establishing in the coming weeks.

His calculations show that more than 45,000 people from 52 different countries have been apprehended as they illegally came into Texas.

“This effort is focused on reducing the humanitarian crisis at our border, on increasing border protection and security for our communities and on expediting trade between the United States and Mexico,” he said. “Importantly, the federal government will pay 100% of the costs of this short-term mission.”

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES Migrants cross the border between the U.S. and Mexico at the Rio Grande River, as they walk to enter El Paso, Texas, on May 19, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The location is in an area where migrants frequently turn themselves in and ask for asylum in the U.S. after crossing the border.