Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Texas will begin to build its own border barriers between Texas and Mexico as the border crisis continues to explode and the Biden administration fails to “do its job.”
Speaking to Breitbart Texas on Thursday, Abbott said his state “will immediately begin building border barriers in areas where migrants can easily cross the Rio Grande border with Mexico.”
“The barriers will, in part, enable state law enforcement to arrest migrants for violations of state law,” Breitbart noted.
“The influx across the border is out of control, and the Biden administration has shown that [it] is not going to step up and do its job,” the Republican governor said before attending a border summit in Del Rio, Texas. “And amidst reports of even more people coming in across the border, we know we have to step up and do more.”
Del Rio “is suffering from some of the largest increases” of illegal immigrants, he told the news outlet. “They’re seeing a lot of very bad dangerous people come across the border. People that they are afraid of encountering, people who are causing damage to their fences, their livestock, their crops, their neighborhoods, and their homes.”
“Bad things are happening around here, and so they need help from the state to help them address this exploding crisis,” Abbott emphasized.
According to Abbott, “authorities will use existing state laws along with the authority of the State of Emergency declaration made earlier this month to crack down on those illegally crossing the border,” Breitbart reported.
“What people have seen in videos across the country seems to be the Biden administration welcoming these people to the United States,” Abbott said. “We won’t be sending that message.”
“If you come to Texas, you’re subject to being arrested,” the governor warned. “You’re not going to have a pathway to roam the country. You’re going to have a pathway directly into a jail cell.”
“We want to be very aggressive in working with local officials and begin making mass arrests,” he continued. “In working in collaboration with a large number of counties — that means we’re going to be arresting a lot more people.”
“In the end, only the federal government and Congress can fix this, but as it stands right now, the state of Texas is going to step up and we’re going to start making arrests — sending a message to anybody thinking about coming here, you’re not going to get a free pass to the U.S. They’re getting a straight pass to a jail cell,” Abbott concluded.
During a visit to the southern border in March, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) highlighted the dire circumstances brought about by Biden administration policy, or lack thereof.
“These are the Biden cages,” the senator captioned video of a cramped migrant camp.
“Thousands of kids, in the midst of a pandemic, crammed in at 1500% capacity. This is just one of the ‘pods’ at Donna,” he added. “There are SEVEN more, equally full.”
These are the Biden cages. (Faces blurred.) Thousands of kids, in the midst of a pandemic, crammed in at 1500% capacity.
This is just one of the “pods” at Donna. There are SEVEN more, equally full. pic.twitter.com/zyMm5yiIPZ
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 27, 2021
Related: ‘These Are The Biden Cages’: Sen. Cruz Posts Shocking Video Of Border Crisis, Smugglers