As the crisis at the southern border continues to rage, Texas is soldiering on in its own efforts to push back. Gov. Greg Abbott recently announced the state will continue to bus illegal immigrants from the border to sanctuary cities and states around the country. At the same time, state troops are replacing razor wire that was removed or damaged along border barriers, as well as installing new anti-climbing barriers designed to prevent people from scaling over existing walls and fences. Texas has also deployed buoys in the Rio Grande River to create a floating border barrier, despite legal challenges from Mexico and the Biden administration.
Abbott touts that the state has bussed about 70,000 migrants to various sanctuary cites since he began the program in 2022, and vows to continue doing so into 2024. But the impact of the bussing program is far greater than the raw numbers. "This has had an enormous political effect," says Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies. "Getting the mayor of New York City screaming about border security is pretty amazing...and even though (Democrat leaders) were initially complaining about Texas, they're now attacking the Biden administration's policies."
Indeed, even Arizona's Democrat governor, Katie Hobbs, is ripping the Biden administration, demanding they reimburse her state for the costs of "failing to secure the border."
"I think (Abbott) has been pretty successful in spreading the pain (of the border crisis)," says Krikorian. "This really is eating away at the president's party's coalition, as more Democrats turn on him over the border."
As for Texas' other border measures like razor wire and river buoys, Krikorian believes they may be linked to the recent surge of illegal crossings in Arizona that has the governor there so upset. "I don't have direct proof, but I suspect Texas' efforts to complicate crossing at the border have probably contributed to smugglers and illegals to increasingly try somewhere else," he tells KTRH.
Photo: AFP