Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has a strong stance against illegal immigration. This is because Texas is one of the states with the most illegal immigration in the entire country. As the president continues to struggle with the migration crisis in the US, Abbott decided to take matters into his own hands.
The state passed a new law that allows authorities to make arrests of people who cross the US-Mexico border illegally. It also allows local judges to order the migrants out of the country. Although this law goes into full effect in March, authorities are wasting no time in taking bold steps.
Recently, they arrested about 10,000 migrants who crossed the US-Mexico border under the “arrest and jail” initiative. Texas is one of the states whose stance against illegal migrations has always been clear. According to their government, the illegal migrants are causing a lot of setbacks for them with their large numbers.
Therefore, they had to take bold steps to reduce the population of these migrants significantly. In 2021 alone, over 1.2 million illegal migrants came into the state seeking asylum. This number is relatively high and almost doubled that of the previous year.
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In 2022, illegal border crossings were over 1.5 million. This showed that there was a crisis that the government needed to check as soon as possible. The citizens of the state also began to complain as their parks and other government buildings were filled to the neon with migrants.
According to Abbott, arresting these illegal migrants and sending them back to their country might be the perfect solution. “When people start learning about this, they’re going to stop coming across the Texas border,” he said.
POLL—Should the U.S. Government Create a Path to Citizenship for Undocumented Immigrants?
Abbott appointed the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest trespassers who were looking to enter illegally. Since then, they have made a total of over 37,000 criminal arrests. These included gang members, human traffickers, sex offenders, and others, according to Spokesperson Ericka Miller.
Miller also told the Associated Press that the presence of the officers at the borders has helped regulate things. “Had we not been there, all of it likely would have crossed into the country unimpeded. The state of Texas is working to send a message to those considering crossing into the country illegally to think again.”
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Texas has also spent a lot of money trying to curb illegal migration. The border mission known as “Operation Lone Star” cost the government nearly $10 billion. As a Republican-led state, Texas does not support Biden’s plan to continue to accept migrants at all times.
Abbott also sent about 80,000 migrants to shelter cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., earlier in December. He claims Texas is at its maximum capacity and can no longer house so many undocumented immigrants.
However, many civil rights organizations do not agree with Abbott’s actions. They claim that it is unconstitutional for him to dismiss the migrants or arrest them if they are caught.
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