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Texas is ramping up it's border security.
On Friday, Gov. Gregg Abbott announced that the state has added more buoys to its floating marine barrier in the Rio Grande River this week and also installed more razor wire in Eagle Pass. The move is in anticipation of more illegal border crossings prior to President-elect Donald Trump returning to office and is also part of the ongoing Operation Lone Star.
Gov. Abbott said the state has taken matters into it's own hands because the federal government has refused to close the border and keep Americans safe from criminal illegals under President Joe Biden.
“Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to open border policies,” Abbott said in a statement released Friday.
The Biden administration previously called for Texas to remove the floating border wall, which saw construction on it first begin in June of 2023, the same year that Operation Lone Star started. In July of this year, the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the barrier could stay after the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking it's removal.
According to Gov. Abbott, illegal crossings into Texas have gone down 86% because of Operation Lone Star. There have also been over 48,000 criminal arrests made and more than 553 million lethal doses of fentanyl seized.
“Fewer illegal crossings into Texas means fewer migrants to transport to sanctuary cities,” said Abbott.
Texas has shipped more than 119,000 illegal migrants to six different sanctuary cities since April 2022.