Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has taken "unprecedented" measures to deter thousands of migrants from crossing into the state by parking Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles along the U.S.-Mexico border near the Del Rio International Bridge.
"We put hundreds of Texas Department of Public Safety cars and created a steel wall — a steel wall of DPS vehicles — that prevented anybody from crossing that dam that you’ve seen people walk across," Abbott told Fox News Tuesday. "We effectively ... regained control of the border."
Thousands of migrants are living in makeshift huts and sleeping in the dirt under the bridge, waiting for their turn to be processed by U.S. immigration authorities. Abbott has blamed President Joe Biden for the situation, saying the federal government is not doing enough to secure the country's southern border.
"When you have an administration that is not enforcing the law in this country, when you have an administration that has abandoned any pretense of securing the border and securing our sovereignty, you see the onrush of people like what we saw walking across this dam that is right behind me," Abbott said at a news conference in Val Verde County.
Government officials started parking their cars along the border last week.
"The Texas Department of Public Safety is in full force along the border around the Del Rio area. They have built a barricade with their squad cars and State Troopers. The National Guard is working with them to secure the border," Abbott tweeted.
He added in a statement that "one day there were countless people coming across the border, then the DPS put up all these vehicles, and suddenly, in an instant, people stopped crossing the border in this location. That strategy is working."
Texas will spend an additional $2 billion on security for the border.
"It has been the state of Texas that has had to step up," Abbott said. "Failure to enforce laws that exist in the United States leads to chaos and chaos leads to inhumanity."
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