Texas Gov. Abbott, GOP governors hold press conference on border crisis

okay okay so cartels so we've got all um thank you thank you for me okay stays here in texas we squeaked it out i've got the steaks they're marinated sorry i have a wife at nebraska uh mhm [Music] up over there um oh did you lost already um fish thank you everybody for gathering with us today we're here today to talk about something that more than half of the governors of the united states of america have been working on that we want to announce to you today before we start talking about that however i do want to talk a little bit about something that happened as i was traveling to the rio grande valley today there was a shooting that took place in high school located in arlington texas i've had the opportunity to talk to the mayor in arlington texas and to talk to director steve mccraw the director of texas department of public safety to make sure that the state of texas is using the texas department of public safety as well as any and all other tools to assist arlington and the surrounding communities all of which have law enforcement fully engaged in this process let me just give you the latest update that i have right now knowing that facts are changing on the ground as we speak according to director mccraw the school is safe and secure the shooter has been identified and there is a search for the shooter we know the shooter's car we feel confident that the shooter will be located very very soon the shooter under texas law it is illegal for the shooter to either possess or to have purchased the gun that was used in this crime what i understand just very briefly is that a fight broke out inside the school and the shooter pulled out the gun that he had illegally and shot several people we are still awaiting word about exactly how many people were shot i don't have any information about any loss of life but it would be completely premature to make any comment whatsoever about the lives of anyone what we can say of obviously is this and that is we grieve for everyone who's been harmed or impacted by this in any way whatsoever and we as a state working with the local communities will do everything possible to ensure that the shooter is swiftly and effectively prosecuted now on to what we what we are here for today obviously we are at the border here in texas and we're here to talk about border related issues and let me just start out by making a very clear point and that is president joe biden has caused a humanitarian crisis and chaos on our border all americans saw exactly what happened in del rio texas just last month and we know that that chaos will be repeated unless and until president biden takes action 26 of america's governors have worked together to develop specific actions that biden can take immediately to end the crisis on the border that he has caused we all of us asked the president for meaning to visit with us about this and he refused to meet with us and he completely ignored us nine of the 26 governors that crafted this action plan gathered today at the border a border by the way that president biden has never even been to we're here to announce 10 actions that president biden must take immediately for me i will mention three one the byte administration must reinstate the remain and mexico protocols which require asylum seekers to remain in mexico while awaiting their court hearing this is a proven deterrent to crossing illegally second the binding administration must finish securing the border which includes among other things finishing the border wall third divine administration must enforce title 42 health restrictions at the border and then i'll add this while joe biden has done absolutely nothing to solve the crisis that he caused texas has taken 10 actions not plans but actions to address the biden border crisis one i signed laws providing three billion dollars of texas taxpayer money for texas to do the federal government's job to secure the border second i've deployed thousands of national guard and texas department of public safety troopers and officers to secure the border they are credited with forming a barrier that shut down the illegal migration surge in del rio third we created a system to arrest and jail illegal immigrants who are trespassing in texas fourth i signed a budget approval and provided the authorization to build a border wall in texas fifth i signed a law to make it easier to prosecute smugglers who are bringing illegal immigrants into texas sixth i signed nine laws cracking down on human trafficking in texas seven i signed a law that creates a new crime for the manufacturer or distribution of fentanyl this targets the gangs and cartels that biden is allowing into america who are trafficking this deadly drug eight i declared a disaster for border counties that are suffering from the surge of illegal border crossings nine i issued an executive order to prevent ngos from transporting illegal immigrants in texas and tenth texas took legal action to enforce the remain in mexico policy as well as the title of 42 policy in that regard a federal judge in texas ruled in our favor commanding the bite administration to continue to keep the remain and mexico policy in place the byte administration has refused not only to keep that policy in place but the byte administration has also ignored that order issued by a federal court that was appealed all the way up to the supreme court and allowed to stay in place at this time the body administration is in violation of a federal court order to impose the remain in mexico policy last want to make clear that while biden continues to dither texas and other states are taking action to do the federal government's job i think the governors from across america who have sent resources to our state they understand the magnitude of the problem as well as the need for action and i think the governors who were able to adjust their schedules to be with us here today there are several other speakers including first the director of the texas department of public safety steve mccraw thank you governor i were to say this before you've heard the governor say it there cannot be the most significant threat to texas is clearly an unsecured international border with mexico it's the most significant public safety and homeland security threat it's allowed mexican cartels to evolve and become the most dangerous most violent most brutal criminal organizations in the world they dominate the drug and human trafficking market throughout the united states and if you have a fentanyl problem in iowa you have one in oklahoma you have one you have a border problem that's exactly what's been going on the governor has taken us the state spending a lot of money over the years in terms of how we can provide direct support to the brave men and women of the u.s border patrol to be able to support their mission what the governor's done now though is taking us from a reactive position and put us in a proactive position and prevent a position so no more in terms of detection interdiction okay and seizure and apprehension the focus is prevention from the start and leaning forward in that regard to that end he's formulated a plan that has all the border basics including infrastructure personnel capabilities technology and doctrine that can secure the texas-mexico border and unfortunately uh the state of texas has made it very clear the governor made it very clear we can't wait for washington to do it we don't need their permission to protect texas there's a bottom line and we're forced you know we're blessed the fact that the government leaned forward on this particular issue and governor thank you on behalf of the men and women department of public safety the state of texas for all you do for public safety and for those people in the law enforcement profession means a lot that you care and so does the state legislature and i know these governors feel the same way and so very proud to stand with you today and thank you for all you do and thank you for sending troopers down here and resources we appreciate that we know that by putting them here we've been able to protect your state and i know you care deeply about protecting your citizens from harm and god bless you and governor that's all my remarks thank you next we have brandon judd the president of the border patrol council good afternoon thank you governor greatly appreciate it governors thank you thank you i i can tell you that law enforcement greatly appreciates um the work these men and women are doing sure would have been nice if we could have just as many democrat governors as well to discuss this issue we have to have an honest conversation criminal cartels listen to actions they don't care about words and the actions of the biden administration is very clear if you cross the border illegally you will be rewarded and that's what this administration is doing so as they give lip service to an issue as they say the borders are closed their actions clearly should demonstrate otherwise if we continue to reward criminality if we continue to reward people for crossing the borders illegally people are going to continue to come it's interesting we always say we shouldn't recreate the will president biden has the blueprints president trump did in fact create the will he showed what needs to be done in order to control illegal immigration if we can control illegal immigration we can then go after the profits of the cartels we can cut down on the drugs that are going to these states that are killing so many of our children of our family members if we can't do that the cartels will continue to control everything that is happening on the border president biden has a responsibility to the citizens of this great nation to do what's right by them not by the cartels do not allow the cartels to make the profits that they are making which by the way is over 400 million dollars every month in illegal alien smuggling that does not count the drug smuggling over 400 million dollars a month that's an astronomical number there's a reason that they're in that business in illegal business again i want to thank the governors i feel for you i feel for what you have to deal with in your states with your families with your family members simply because we don't have the policies policies that does not cost the taxpayer a cent if you ask me do we need more resources we do do we need more infrastructure yes technology yes but it must start with policy policy will allow us to get this under control and then we can look at what needs to be done after that governor abbott's uh leadership on this issue has been fantastic law enforcement is grateful to him for what he's been doing to help us try to get this issue under control but without president biden we're going to continue to talk about this year in year out thank you governor thank you next is arizona governor doug ducey thanks very much brandon and i want to say thank you to governor abbott for welcoming us to see what's unfolding here in texas the situation here is certainly outrageous and i want you to know you've seen the coverage men on horseback literally hurting men and women thousands of migrants gathered in a bidenville under del rio bridge children abandoned on the treacherous journey to our country it's a tragedy and i can tell you the border situation is just as out of control in the state of arizona the border sector in yuma has had more than a one thousand percent increase in apprehensions compared to last year the highest increase among all sectors the tucson sector has seen more than a 200 percent increase in apprehensions and it's not just the people that are crossing the border it's the lethal drugs almost 2 000 pounds of fentanyl and over 13 000 pounds of methamphetamine have been seized in arizona sectors alone this year just think about how many drugs are slipping through the cracks and slipping into the bloodstreams in our communities this isn't a figure of speech this is our reality fentanyl overdoses have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death for people 19 and younger in pima county one of our border communities pima county deputy sheriffs are responding to a call involving fentanyl every 40 hours by neglecting the border president biden has fueled an opioid epidemic in america the biden border crisis has also led to a disturbing rise in crime in our streets because our border sheriffs have to spread their personnel thin between the border and the rest of their counties there are far fewer officers patrolling our streets and keeping arizonans safe in yuma the amount of theft has increased by over 36 percent compared to the second half of last year homicides in tucson are up almost 60 percent compared to this time last year our law enforcement officers in arizona are some of the best in the nation but they can only do so much when hundreds of thousands of migrants are flooding into the country illegally every month there are three people to blame for making america a more dangerous place president joe biden vice president kamala harris and secretary alejandro mayorkas it's no secret anymore they have created this crisis and americans know it this year president biden took the oath of office to become our country's 46th commander-in-chief instead of commanding our military he's commanded drug cartels and other criminals to wreak havoc on the united states he and vice president harris and secretary mayorkus have allowed criminals and drugs to run rampant in our streets and it's time for them to do something about it i've joined twenty five other governors many who are standing behind me today in sending a letter to president biden requesting a meeting now either he's unwilling to solve this crisis or he doesn't know how so we're here to offer solutions it's been 16 days since we sent the president the letter and we still haven't heard anything back we're not going to sit around while joe biden refuses to act the white house press secretary last week told the republican governors to be a part of the solution we've tried to meet with the president and be a part of the solution but he refuses even worse he ignores just like he's ignoring the border and the well-being of the american people if the president won't meet with us then we'll share our policy ideas today hopefully he'll hear the solutions and act the biden administration should begin by dedicating federal resources needed to eradicate human trafficking and drug trafficking along the southern border we need additional resources to fight drug cartels arrest offenders support victims and prevent lethal and dangerous drugs from reaching american cities and schools across our country the drug enforcement administration issued a public safety warning for the first time in six years as international and domestic traffickers flood the u.s with fake prescriptions laced with lethal doses of fentanyl americans lives are at risk we need this administration to provide adequate resources to stop the flow of these deadly drugs across the border the border must be secured and criminals must be deported on top of that the u.s should re-enter all agreements with our northern triangle partners including mexico upon taking office president biden issued an ill-advised and frankly foolish executive order that terminated agreements with el salvador guatemala honduras and mexico those countries had already agreed to enforce their respective borders fix their asylum systems and receive migrants seeking asylum before they journey north to the united states upon joe biden's open borders invitation and our final solution is about communication president biden vice president harris and biden administration officials at every level of government need to speak with a unified and clear voice to potential migrants our country's borders are not open and abuse or misuse of the asylum system will not be tolerated this isn't hard or at least it shouldn't be but we are talking about the biden administration after all we can turn things around we can keep drugs out of our communities and our schools and we can make our streets safer we can have an immigration policy that doesn't include men on horseback hurting migrants president biden this is up to you are you willing to make the changes necessary to keep americans and these migrants out of harm's way that's the question you need to answer thank you thank you governor and uh next is iowa governor kim reynolds thank you governor it's a pleasure to be here you know over the past eight months we have seen illegal immigration just soar and in fact it's becoming a a migration and joe biden has done absolutely nothing to confront this self-inflicted crisis as chief executives of our state republican governors have come together to discuss what we expect the federal government to take action on so that we can stop the crisis and humanitarian crisis that's happening at this border um you know the security and we have seen um we need joe biden to step up and lead we can do this by enacting common sense uh policies that will reduce never-ending programs uh but his policies have done just the exact opposite what we're seeing coming out of the biden administration is incentivizing actual uh migration and illegal crossings is at a 20-year high including the crossings of unaccompanied children and what they're doing after that is they're secretly transporting them into our states across this country and iowa is one of those states in april we had 15 unaccompanied minor girls that were flown into the des moines airport in the middle of the night and then they were boarded on charter buses and after we were made aware of this happening in the state of iowa we reached out to the biden administration to ask them if they were responsible for this action taking place and for over a month they denied any involvement in this action and so we were concerned that it could be human trafficking and so we used our own resources to continue to investigate the plane that had 19 young women being dropped off in the state of iowa and moved to charter buses after weeks of denying that they had no involvement in it whatsoever they finally admitted that it was their administration that was responsible for that plane landing in the state of iowa i can tell you tennessee has a similar story as well as iowa so if this is happening in iowa and if it's happening in tennessee this is happening in states all across our country and at a minimum this administration should not only provide transparency but they should notify governors across this country when illegal migrants and unaccompanied children are being dropped off in our state because then we become responsible for them so that is a policy solution that he could could enact uh tomorrow in addition to that he should require the office of refugee resettlement to enforce that policy action in addition to that they need to re resume the deportation of all convicted criminals when president biden took office the first thing he did was to issue an executive order that ordered ice to do limited deportations that is unacceptable that should have never happened all convicted illegal criminals need to be deported and that is another thing that he could do tomorrow thank you governor and next we have nebraska governor pete ricketts thank you very much governor abbott for hosting us here today and i want to start by thanking the men and women of the customs and border patrol they are heroes helping to secure our nation's border here and they need to be supported so thank you today [Applause] i also want to thank all the national guard and law enforcement folks who are also doing the same so can we give them a round of applause too [Applause] president biden thinks that he can ignore this humanitarian and security crisis and it will go away but we are here today to shine a light on what is going on here at the southern border and how it is impacting all of our states not just the state of texas and that's why we put forward this 10-point plan that governor abbott kicked off for us and my colleagues other colleagues had highlighted i'm going to round out a couple more of the points that we're asking for as part of this overall plan that we know will work to help us stem this mass migration into our country one of the things the bite administration must do is end the catch and release program this was an obama-era program that was terminated under the trump administration and restarted again under the bind administration what this does is just incentivize people to come across the border illegally because they are then released and that is creating a crisis not only here at the border but health hazards across our country so if you think about what's going on here as reports have shown 18 of the families that are coming here illegal and being released are testing positive for coronavirus covet 19. and when it comes to the unaccompanied miners that's 20 percent in fact i think there's a report out there that shows that the buying administration may have placed up to 40 000 covent positive people into our cities here in the united states what the buying administration needs to do is stop this policy and then resource the judicial system to be able to expedite these cases there are is a record over a million people that are waiting to get their cases hurt as we heard earlier today from brandon judd in our briefing this can take two years before their court case comes back up again and that's if they show back up so the bind administration must take steps to end this catch and release program and then also the bind administration must properly resource this border that means they need to resource more for customers and border patrol and the national guard now look folks this is not new four previous administrations have deployed national guard troops to the border to be able to help out with this crisis down here the blind administration needs to call it more soldiers to be able to do that they can do that under title 10 so that the states don't bear the cost that's what the proper role the federal government is but because they have failed to properly resource this border states like nebraska have stepped up earlier this summer we provided the state of texas with some of our state troopers to be able to come out and help out with some of the law enforcement and let me tell you folks the stories are just heart-wrenching when i was talking to captain jason scott who led our mission he was talking about how most the people they encountered coming across the border illegally surrendered to them because of the dire conditions they were in they wanted the help he talked about a two-year-old who had been in the desert for two weeks with no food this is the humanitarian crisis that is going on right here in the state of texas the president must act he cannot continue to ignore this humanitarian and security crisis any longer and it he has seen that we the states have a ten point plan that will address us and we know as brandon judy was talking about earlier it will work because it's worked before we're calling on the president to act to end this crisis thank you thank you also i want to let you know also joining with us here today is the governor from oklahoma kevin stitt the governor from ohio dewine the governor from georgia governor kemp the idaho governor brad little montana governor greg giamforte and the wyoming governor mark jordan and we have with us uh the texas as united general tracy norris as well as the national guard general in charge of border security and that is general euless with that we'll take a few questions the american people saw the crisis at the border when they saw the way the dubai administration allowed del rio to be overrun the governors insist the dubai administration reinstate the effective plans that were put in place by president trump and the governors also are adamant that while president biden may be silent about this and may not be taking any action whatsoever we are going to act in his absence our constituents demand it not just here in texas but i can speak for all of these other governors here when all of their states are suffering because of the massive inflow of fentanyl into the united states which is leading to deaths in all of our states this is one of if not the most urgent matter that we're facing in the united states at this time and it's time for the blind administration to wake up and get on the job and do its job to protect the sovereignty and safety of the united states of america governor kai also stepping on that one to say this is not a crisis to ignore the data through august customs and border patrol has had over 1.3 million contacts through august of last year that number was 272 thousand nearly five times as many contacts this year that's why this is not about illegal immigration this is about a mass migration and if you look at april 2021 ice completed 2962 removals that is the lowest number on record so while we are seeing a surge at the southern border the bind administration is not resourcing our agencies properly to be able to take the appropriate law enforcement action that is why the president must act governor critics say that the operation is unconstitutional how do you respond to that we think that the person who is acting inconsistent with the constitution is the president of the united states he's completely abdicated his constitutional duties and that is why it is necessary for the states to take action we believe the states are authorized by the united states constitution to do exactly what texas is doing under the 10-point plan that we are already acting on right now our job is to secure the health and safety and security of our constituents and if joe biden's not going to do it the governors of the united states of america will do it governor secretary stated earlier today that the federal government was now ready to handle a crisis similar to what we saw in the rio are you concerned are you can you trust in what the federal government is saying to see a scenario like we saw in another area in the world i cannot count the number of misrepresentations that have been made by secretary mayorkas he has continuously misled the american public including even saying that the border is closed and secure which could be nothing further from the truth i believe congress should investigate and call upon the resignation of secretary mayorkas for abandoning his job not doing what the secretary of homeland security is supposed to do which among other things means supporting and deploying uh border patrol which are completely lacking and inadequate down here and so secretary marcus is a disaster in what he's done and no one should put any trust or confidence in anything that he says governor governor closing ports there are no new policies programs or operations that have been implemented since del rio we are not prepared to handle anything we're not prepared to handle the numbers that are coming up we're not prepared to handle the 60 000 that peru just reported is coming through their borders no policies programs or operations that's the answer to your question and one other point on that one other point on that every policy that we sent to the president he can handle with the stroke of a pen he does not need the help of congress secretary mayorkas has been non-responsive to we as border governors and we have 26 governors on that letter asking for action right now secretary mayorkas took 90 days to respond to the letter arizona sent him in march he should resign vice president harris has been the worst possible choice to be the borders are she's never shown any care about this issue or any level of seriousness and joe biden has never even been to the border but we are here today presenting solutions we will work with them this is a crisis and it requires action with urgency we will take any and all action that needs to be taken understand this however uh and and that is most if not all of the illegal immigration that is occurring is between the ports of entry uh that is why we are having surge resources between the points of entry uh because our job is to uh our focal point is to try to reduce people who are crossing here illegally in mexico you mentioned with spectrum news one uh on your order to arrest migrants that were crossing because of trans i spoke to several of them and they got their documents the release documents just like anybody else how effective do you think it is in the light of that and also mpp have you considered that mexico has not yet agreed so with regard to the remaining mexico policy there is a court order requiring the obama administration uh to work with mexico to reimplement that policy something that the bite administration is refusing to do second with regard to the texas policy to arrest in jail people who are illegal immigrants coming into texas and trespassing on private property that's an effective way of sending a message that if you come into the state of texas illegally you have a high likelihood of not getting caught and released but instead arrested in jail governor connection between fentanyl here at the border in far away states like iowa or perhaps ohio earlier today director mccraw showed all of these governors a map of the way that fentanyl crisscrosses the entire united states of america all of the governors who are with us today and those who are not with us today that have fentanyl going into their states to give you just one mathematical example and that is just the amount of fentanyl apprehended just by the texas department of public safety just this year is more than enough to kill every man woman and child in the states of texas california and new york all of those states are subject to having fentanyl taken into the states and we'll have governor dewine from ohio tell you more about what's happening in history sure so in ohio at least 80 percent of our overdose deaths every week are caused by fentanyl it is being mixed into everything i get calls i get letters uh from family members who have lost someone so this crisis at the southern border is a humanitarian crisis it's also a drug crisis uh it's a fentanyl crisis and we're seeing the same thing as i've indicated at our press conferences with interstate 35 and interstate 80 we're a direct route for drugs to pipe through des moines council bluffs and then out through the united states we've seen a tremendous increase four times uh meth as well as fentanyl has increased earlier this year it was a thousand percent increase from what we saw over the same time last year and that's killing our young people and the other thing that we're also experiencing is the purity of the fentanyl that's coming in and the way that they're lacing it we've also seen a tremendous uptick in the use of uh naloxone naloxone um to combat fentanyl and so we are seeing it like every other state across this country and it's taxing not only uh iowans but our law enforcement as well could you explain exactly i can just jump on there with uh nebraska as well say same thing is happening in nebraska so talking to the colonel by state patrol methamphetamine in the midwest is up four times what it was last year and we have seen that our state patrol has confiscated more than about two and a half times the amount of fentanyl in our state this year versus last year so we're seeing the same thing as far as the impact on our communities with regards to drugs governor governor we've seen you down here several times the governor's on today exactly where you went do they were they on the river did they visit with any migrant arrested centers could you explain where you took them sure before coming here we had a briefing at the texas department of public safety headquarters where uh brandon judge and brendan judd and director mccraw explained to them exactly what was taking place on the border where it was taken place and what the consequences were for all of the states it will be after this uh that the governors are going to be able to visit different locations some by boat some by air some on ground governor several been formally times of a crime what's your reaction on that uh if you're talking about in the arrest of jail programs yeah and so the the prosecuting attorneys in those counties have the legal responsibility to effectively charge anybody who's arrested for a crime we urge them to charge them with the highest potential penalty that they can be charged with to make sure that they remain in jail for as long as possible two more questions at the border several times with president donald former president donald trump with ted cruz now if the blind administration doesn't respond to this how do you and other people plan to move forward we we will speaking for the state of texas we are going to continue to escalate what we are doing to respond to this crisis we hear stories about the potential for oncoming caravans and as we're gathering here today the national guard and the texas department of public safety are getting ready to be able to respond to those caravans in ways that secure texas last question governor are you concerned that the new law of constitutional carry is sending the wrong message to young people so very importantly with regard to the school shooting that took place today as well as with really any school shooting that i'm aware of the gun that was possessed by the shooter was possessed illegally uh and we will make sure that laws are enforced and those who act illegally will be held accountable and then really greatly thanks guys for george floyd so obviously the the texas board of apartment and paroles just issued their decision we go through our legal analysis next and we'll let you know when we make a decision great thank you guys so much for coming thank you so much thank you all national guard has been down here you

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Length: 48min 35sec (2915 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 06 2021