Texas governor announces additional border force to hold back migrants

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - A new tactical border force will be deployed to Texas’ borders ahead of the expiration of a public health order which helped block migrants from entering the US, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Monday.

The Texas National Guard is loading Black Hawk helicopters, C-130s, and specially trained national guard members to "to identify areas where illegal immigrants are trying to cross the border and to fill that gap and to repel them to deny them access to entry into the United States," Abbott told a press conference in the US state, which shares a long border with Mexico.

"President (Joe) Biden is laying down a welcome mat to people across the entire world saying that the United States border is wide open, and it will lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally," Abbot claimed in a statement, saying 13,000 people could illegally cross the border every single day.

"President Biden’s open border policies is going to cause a catastrophic disaster in the United States," Abbott added, although Biden has never instituted any policy of that name or description.

The additional forces will strengthen thousands of Texas National Guard service members assisting local and state law enforcement agencies to secure the border and stop the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and people into Texas, said the guard in a statement Monday. It will also prevent, detect, and interdict transnational criminal behavior between the ports of entry, the statement added.

Title 42, the health order created to address public health and welfare which is now due to expire, grants the government the ability to take action in various ways.

The administration of Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, used Title 42 to override immigration law that enabled people to ask for asylum after entering illegally.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invoked Title 42 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it gave border patrol officials the authority to send migrants back to their home country or the country they were last in, often Mexico.