Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a vocal critic of President Joe Biden’s border policies, boldly confronted the president as he arrived in El Paso, Texas. As Air Force One touched down at the local airport, Abbott was there to greet the president with a letter full of proposed solutions to rectify the chaotic scene playing out at the border, including harsh criticism for Biden’s handling of the matter.
In his letter, Abbott accused Biden of creating an environment that has emboldened Mexico’s drug cartels and made them wealthy through human and drug trafficking. He noted that Texans have been paying an especially heavy price due to these policies, one that sometimes comes with a high cost…even life. To remedy this situation, Abbott suggested that Biden resume construction of the border wall in Texas and fully implement Title 42, a Trump-era public health order used to rapidly deport certain immigrants arriving illegally in the United States. Additionally, he requested that Mexican cartels be declared foreign terrorists by the US government.
“Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings,” the letter read. “Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance.”
Abbott also commented on Biden’s decision to sanitize El Paso from migrant camps which had taken over downtown streets in recent months, suggesting it was done simply so that the president would not have to witness firsthand how his policies have affected locals in Texas.
“Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis.”
When interviewed about his confrontational meeting with Biden, Abbott voiced his desire to not only express his grievances but also propose solutions which could bring back some order to the immigration system and reduce illegal migration into Texas.
The governor stated that despite Joe Biden’s announcement earlier in the week about visiting El Paso and meeting with local officials, he was only contacted late last night with an invitation from The White House asking him to greet President Joe Biden as he alighted from Air Force One. While speaking with both Joe Biden and members of Congress representing Texas (Democratic Representatives Veronica Escobar, Henry Cuellar and Vicente González), Abbott reiterated how disastrously detrimental these open-border policies have been on residents throughout his state, particularly those living along its southern border region.
“The President announced on Thursday that he was gonna be coming to the border and we didn’t hear from him. He said he was gonna meet with local officials. Last night, a staff person in my office received an invitation from the president’s office for me to greet the president at the tarmac, which I did do as I always do,” Abbott said.
“But I wanted to use the opportunity to express to the president the damage that he’s caused in the state of Texas and the solutions that he could deploy today to eliminate that damage, to restore the immigration system to an orderly system and to eliminate illegal immigration,” he added.
