Gov. Abbott discusses border security

go see you again don't come on up we're going to come up close to the mics there you are thank you for joining with us today i've had the opportunity to meet earlier today with the border patrol both at the local level as well as the national level also the opportunity to get a briefing from the texas department of public safety and the national guard as well as have the opportunity to fly over the region as we were flying over the region we did see people crossing the border illegally and making their way across the river onto the texas side of the border we saw an ice detention center as well as other holding facilities and obviously we are at this location now in my briefing i had the opportunity to speak to leaders at national local levels i do want to thank people who are with us here today they include the director of the texas department of public safety steve mccraw general norris the adjutant general in charge of the national guard in the state of texas as well as the national president for the border patrol council brandon judd i thank them for being here but also especially for our state team members for their leadership in the texas operation lone star let me begin by making one point very clear there is a crisis on the texas border right now with the overwhelming number of people who are coming across the border this crisis is a result of president biden's open border policies it invites illegal immigration and is creating a humanitarian crisis in texas right now that will grow increasingly worse by the day in getting information in my meeting with the border patrol i learned these things and that is one of the reasons for this crisis that has led to a dramatic change in just a few months is the change in policy there was a policy that people who had come across the border illegally would be returned across the border and there was also the remain in mexico policy with the elimination of those policies that led to a dramatic increase in the number of people coming across the border second uh the the border patrol told me that they did inform the biden administration and let them know that this influx was coming so it's not as if the body administration didn't know about it it's not as if they didn't have time to get prepared for it but it is clear they are completely unprepared for what is going on the border now and they're going to be even more unprepared for what will be happening in the coming months what the border patrol told me and this is actually part of the cartel strategy because of the volume of people coming across the border the border patrol that makes the the arrest they have to engage quite literally in babysitting and while they're doing babysitting that provides an opportunity for the cartels to be able to bring other people across the border illegally more about the cartels in a second two factoids that the border patrol shared with me just this calendar year alone there have been more than 800 criminal aliens apprehended those were criminals of violent criminals who had been previously arrested in the united states and deported who came across the border again among those included 78 sex offenders and 62 gang members including gang members from ms-13 and know this cartels they are ramping up trafficking across the border they're exploiting women and children and they are overwhelming border patrol resources the border patrol has made very clear to me the way this strategy works the cartels they are involved in every single one of these border crossings that we see but more important the cartels are even more involved in the crossings that we do not see the strategy of the cartels is to overwhelm border patrol agents and law enforcement officials and when the border patrol agents are so completely overwhelmed it's during those moments that the cartels will bring across the border even the more dangerous elements it could be people who are violent criminals there could be people who are from what are called special interest countries those are interests those are countries that are raised concerns about the danger they may pose to the united states such as people coming from countries like iran and iraq china as well as elsewhere the cartels are quite literally being enriched because of the policies that are being used by the by the administration he the by administration is helping the cartels make more money and grow more power they are allowing smugglers who are members of cartel on the mexican side bring in narcotics bunkers special interest savings as well as drugs that include fentanyl cocaine and opioids one thing that is clear from all the observations and all the information that i've been able to gather and that is we need more ice detention facilities in this area immediately but the border patrol simply is not either given enough resources and do not have enough resources to be able to deal with this overwhelming tidal wave of people who are coming across the border let me be clear border patrol has a role to play the role that border patrol plays is they're the ones who have to make the arrest and make the detention then the responsibility goes to ice it is up to ice to detain to test and to quarantine anybody who's coming across the border who may have exposure to covet the body administration does not want to talk about ice the mighty administration is joining together with progressives pretending that ice is going to go away or be eliminated ice is essential in this entire process that we expect the president and the administration to step up fully fund and actually add additional funding to the ice program as well as provide ice with every tool and strategy they can provide them to make sure that they're going to be able to play the role they must play when people do come across the border also let me make this very clear because what i'm about to tell you is maybe one of the most reprehensible things i've heard this whole time the body administration is not providing vaccinations for the border patrol we have border patrol officers whose lives are on the line on a daily basis an hourly basis and the buy demonstration will not step up and provide those border patrol officers with the vaccinations they need the bond administration should surge vaccines to texas to all men and women on the border patrol this week and ensure that every border patrol officer in the state of texas will be vaccinated this week anything less than that is the epitome of inhumanity it's also clear it's been clear long before this administration that the border related issue is the federal government's job but texas is not going to shy away from stepping up and filling the gap that the federal government has left open i've told you some of the stories and there are so many more my phone has been ringing off the hook from ranchers in in this region and regions west of here about the dramatic increase in the number of people who are crossing their ranches and causing mayhem on their ranches you've got business owners you've got homeowners whose lives are being completely disrupted and the biden administration does not care about those ranchers those homeowners and the peoples whose lives are being disrupted he does not care about americans he cares more about people who are not from this country i need the body administration to step up and start providing the safety and security that texans and americans deserve what texas is doing with the help of the texas national guard as well as with the texas department of public safety we've uh we've launched operation lone star this is an operation that's going to be similar to what we've done in the past where we provide a surge of resources to the border the reason why you see these patrol cars lined up behind us because that is exactly what the texas department of public safety has done in the past whenever we have seen the surge of people coming across the border this is an example of what you're going to see up and down the border and let me be clear about something one reason why we are surging operation lone star at this time is because we know what is coming behind all the people who are crossing the border today and that is the caravans seeking to come here and texas is sending a message to any caravan into any cartel member we're ready we're waiting for you if you dare step into the state of texas texas will use every tool and strategy we can to to arrest anybody who's violating the law to put behind the bars anybody's violating the law to make sure that the laws in the state of texas are going to be enforced if you are a caravan or your cartel you better take your activities to some other place because they will not be accepted in texas we will work to step up and try to fill the gap that the federal government is leaving open by making sure that we deploy every resource whether it be texas department of public safety national guard whatever we need to do texas is going to fight for the safety and security of our state to help provide you more information about that i will call up now the director of the texas department of public safety steve mccraw governor thank you for your leadership clearly make no mistake about it the cartels as the governor said they're trying to exploit border patrol by overwhelming them when they do they move methamphetamine cocaine marijuana heroin between the ports of entry plain and simple they move they move ammunition and weapons south and they also move cash south it's plain and simple and there's no question that border patrol properly resourced properly staffed equipped with the right equipment and technology can secure the texas-mexico border as governor said it's a sovereign responsibility for the federal government to do so in the absence of that it impacts not just in terms of texans in the border region but texans everywhere and quite frankly everybody internationally i mean the car tells if you've got a drug problem in new york city in los angeles in san francisco or chicago you've got a border problem because the cartels dominate the drug and human smuggling market and i can tell you another thing as long as cartels are allowed to lure to entice to bring women and children you know into the united states they'll be preyed upon and the depravity of the mexican cartels is unseen by any organized crime group ever and what they do the brutality would shame isis in that regard in terms of what they do their domestic security threat to the government of mexico the enemy of texas their enemy the united states governor thank you for your leadership thank you and now tracy norris uh the adjutant general of the texas national guard thank you sir uh currently the texas military department you're taking step over to the middle a little bit i don't want to be written for you you're fine have deployed we are deploying over 500 soldiers at this time we are going to be in support of the texas department of public safety we will be doing observation posts along the area that dps as designates for us currently we already have planners embedded with dps and we currently have soldiers already training for these events in order to establish observation posts later this week we have been supporting the border for our governor and then for our federal and state partners for over 15 years actually over 100 of the soldiers that are going to be on this mission came off of the border at the end of last year so we already have experience there again and one last thing i'd like to do real very quickly is i'd like to thank the employers of our citizen soldiers for everything that they've supported them to do over the last year which includes our covid response response responsive hurricanes and even a response to last winter weather so i want to thank the employers and their families for supporting our texas citizen soldiers and we are texans supporting texans thank you thank you general last will be the national president for the border patrol council brendan judd thank you governor it's a very interesting and refreshing to be able to speak with an elected official that the first time that you meet with him i'm sorry prior to this out here with us today all he wanted to know was facts no rhetoric no opinion he wanted to know facts as a 23 year veteran of the border patrol having been called upon to testify before congress on 19 different occasions in the last five years more than any other individual on border security that i'm aware of he wanted to know facts and i appreciate that this is not a republican verse democrat issue this is an issue that affects the american citizens and governor abbott wants to be at the forefront he wants to work with across the aisle to fix this issue once and for all he brought up the simple fact that policy today is allowing cartels to enrich themselves it's allowing cartels to prey upon the innocent women children cartels because of current policy are allowed to go into countries like guatemala el salvador honduras and they're allowed now because of policy to advertise their services encourage women and children to put themselves in the hands of these dangerous individuals the comment commander mcgraw talked about we're seeing the abuse we're seeing the rape we're even seeing the murder of these innocent individuals because policy is allowing them to generate profit our policy should be about the american citizens the u.s citizens and its protection when we look at that there are simple solutions we saw under the trump administration the migrant protection protocols the remaining mexico policy it drove illegal immigration to 45-year lows it cut into the criminal cartels profits now that the mpp has has been done away with without replacing it with a policy that would address the same issue has caused illegal immigration to explode we have reintroduced that magnet that invites people to come here to the united states illegally this is not about legal immigration simply put the biden administration if he wants to call the migrant protection protocols inhumane there's other things that he can do hire judges adjudicate the asylum process immediately allow those individuals that have a legal claim to be in the united states to stay in the united states deport those that do not have a legal claim hold these individuals in custody get rid of what has been dubbed the catch and release program that is what draws people to cross the borders illegally that is what is causing the innocent people to put them their themselves in the hands of these dangerous cartels work with the governors like governor abbott who cares deeply and i have had the opportunity to speak with him on multiple occasions he cares deeply about the innocent women and children and wants to support the legal immigration not illegal immigration give us judges adjudicate the asylum process as people enter the country and we will fix the illegal immigration system that works here again i want to thank governor abbott i want to thank him for his leadership and being at the forefront and working on this issue one one interesting point of note there's no other governor whether it's new mexico arizona or california on the southwest border that provides more resources than governor abbott at this particular issue he targets this issue because he understands the importance to the texas people and what it means to secure that border that is right there again governor thank you very much thank you we're going to take questions here in a second one second i want i want to talk about two other facts real quick and y'all come on up here uh two of the facts i want i i want to thank you for recognizing the resources that texas is providing is very important that i also emphasize that the reason why we have the resources that texas can provide is because the texas legislature funds those resources so i express my gratitude to the texas legislature for stepping up to address this problem that their constituents are so concerned about the last fact is this i was sold this in our meeting earlier and it shows you how much the problem has escalated this year i was told that in all of last year in the rio grande valley sector there were about 90 000 apprehensions i was told that already this year in just what january february and half of march there have already been a hundred and eight thousand apprehensions and so you can see that we are on a scale where it's gonna more than double or triple or maybe quadruple or quintuple the number of apprehensions made just in the rio grande valley sector alone because of the new policies of the biden administration with that i'll take a few questions so that is what you call a deflection by the federal government because the federal government has the money they can fund to federal programs to do that the way that is done the entity that's in charge of uh retaining providing testing and quartering any migrant who comes across the border is ice the by administration refuses to talk about ice because they want to pretend it's going to go away but they can provide that funding the testing supplies and equipment directly to ice and his ice that administers those tests while they the the people who are here illegally are in holding and i fully expect the bond administration to stop playing word games and stuff and do their job immigration is a federal government responsibility the federal government has the responsibility to fund the testing of anybody coming here who does have covet and it is ice not the state of texas responsible for administering those tests so our office in one way or the other it could be either me my chief of staff or agencies in the state of texas such as the texas division of emergency management the texas department of public safety we remain in constant contact with local officials in this area whether it be county judges mayors or law enforcement officials and i'm speaking both for myself as well as agencies that are part of the state of texas sure was set their great presence and they were citing residents for minor infractions and right now the economy as you all know is very delicate and so bouncing back is there a kind of balance that dps keepers will have to yeah worry not although the surge right now that the governor ordered is being done by the 500 troopers that were assigned to the board of the benabar that are part of the communities that live here work here and we've extended their work hours we've moved them from different locations but they're part of the community so some of the issues you heard about several years ago will be non-existent if there's any complaint whatsoever you know please contact us because uh we're there to protect the public to protect texans and uh and that's it right now there's a thousand over a thousand nearly 1200 officers are being used and the governor has a discretion to deploy within those border regions at any given i won't put a caveat there we may need to the governor may need to direct us to put more resources at certain locations that are based for a number of reasons that border patrol can't properly staff it so that's a public safety but i can assure you that uh the manner the way we do these operations is really about crime prevention it's not enforcement it's not writing tickets not citations not dw it's about crime prevention and the best way you do that is at the river and highly visible resources including troopers but also tactical boats special operations group and we leverage technology not like that uav you see back here we're using those as well and the aircraft that the legislature's provided the governor supported in terms of helicopters fixed aircraft so they have given us some resources that we can use all those capabilities the department does also jose i want to answer both of these questions also it's very important to understand that what the texas legislature has done they provided every session 800 million dollars for the state to be able to address the border crisis and through that 800 million dollars it has allowed the texas department of public safety to hire additional officers dedicated for the purpose of focusing on the border second i want to send a message to star county to hidalgo county to cameron county to every county the the purpose of dps officers is not to target texas residents is to protect texas residents and they are they are here to make sure they do everything they can to go after the cartels and the cartel activity uh and making the community safer for stark county for hidalgo county fort cameron county etc sure so we we saw the as they were departing a raft uh and uh account that was made by the helicopter pilot uh there were about 21 people uh in this particular group uh and it looked like it would be what would be categorized as family units uh they were groups of adults and some kids of different ages the reason why i say so-called family units i don't know their family members are not we do know that sometimes they are family units sometimes they are children who do not belong to a family but it was both adults and children a total of about 21 people and and this was they were walking up a dirt road after getting off a raft that was pulled back to the mexican side i do believe uh the body administration wants to downplay the severity of what's going on and that's clear from the fact that from my knowledge the president has not recognized the role that ice plays in this entire process another thing that we saw in our helicopter ride was that we saw the ice detention center and it's a very large facility and that is exactly what the federal government has to fund with the dramatic increase and the number of people who are coming across the border however because of federal laws it is essential that the federal government also provide additional funding for judges for magistrates who can adjudicate all of these cases to comply with the timeline standards that are required by the federal laws two more questions so border patrol agents obviously they work for the federal government and they should be provided vaccines by the federal government the federal government has made a priority of vaccinating other federal employees that are not on the front lines like the border patrol and that's why i have this expectation that the border patrol agents who are on the front line be treated like other federal employees who have already been vaccinated by the federal government and that's why i demand that the president send vaccines to the border patrol this week to vaccinate our border patrol agents secure the border period thank you thank you

Channel: KPRC 2 Click2Houston

Views: 4,531,606

Rating: 4.7910089 out of 5

Keywords: border, security, immigration, texas, greg abbott

Id: Rv7u-bOpeW4

Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021