A Texas plan to add $100 million for border “surge operations” was heading toward approval in the closing hours of the state Legislature. Then it hit a political brick wall.
A set of last-minute “technical corrections” took the money off the table the day before adjournment as Gov. Greg Abbott and Republican lawmakers bowed to resistance from minority Democrats. The Dallas Morning News reported that the funds “apparently would have been for federal National Guard operations.”
Republican Rep. John Zerwas, the House’s chief budget writer, characterized the $100 million as “a bit redundant.” Indeed, the Legislature continued its biennial appropriation of $800 million for state troopers along the nearly 2,000-mile Texas-Mexico border, the largest sum any state contributes toward border enforcement.
But merely maintaining the status-quo is a losing proposition. Amid record waves of migrant “family units” and asylum seekers surging into South Texas, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement admitted in March that federal authorities “cannot secure the border in a meaningful way.”
Not waiting for Austin or Washington to step up, a private group called “We Build the Wall” began erecting a border barricade near El Paso last weekend. The project aims to plug a gap near Mount Cristo Rey, where drug smugglers and human traffickers operate virtually unimpeded. The barrier is being built on private land.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the El Paso Sector — which spans El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas and the state of New Mexico — apprehend an average of 930 people per day.
The private venture comes as a federal judge on Friday blocked construction of two other sections of border wall, ruling that money secured under President Trump’s national-security declaration could not be used.
The order by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr., an Obama appointee, temporarily prevents work along 46 miles in New Mexico and another covering five miles in Yuma, Ariz.
7 Comments
It’s to late they have enough illegals in to get the job done plus the million a year legal immigrants..
Democrats should get their heads out of their ***
I’m sure Beto O’Rourke is pleased with this one! Just saw him on OAN spewing his ideology about El Paso openly and undeniably accepting illegal immigrants there. I wonder what the residents of El Paso really think about his idiocy!
Hey You Wash DC Obstructionists to Building a WALL Now
We need an FBI Mueller Probe locking this real group of criminals up…
We’re being invaded and Congress fiddles while Rome burns. Just because Congress refuses to recognize that this is an emergency, does not make it any less of an emergency. The president is commander in chief. Send the armed forces to the border and shut it down until Congress does something. How long is this supposed to go on until someone takes action? Other “enlightened” countries like Canada don’t permit this. We have NO idea who these people are. Gang members, terrorists, a ten minute interview at the border is a joke.
I agree, how long is this suppose to go on before someone does something? As an individual I have no clue how to stop this. Everyone of the left over Obama administration, the socialist loving wantabes and Muslims that are trying to destroy our country needs to be removed from office. They were put into office to make decisions to protect our country and be a voice for the people. The people of the United States do not want this. They want the wall up and those who are breaking the law and the Muslims who are trying to make our country an Islamic state.
They all need to be removed,