Texas is taking the border crisis into its own hands, issuing a disaster declaration because "the Biden administration has abandoned it," according to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on Newsmax.
"They're completely ignoring the crisis on the border, and because of that, as governor, I am having to step up and do the federal government's job," Abbott told "Greg Kelly Reports" on Wednesday.
"We are going to instill safety. We're going to be doing things in Texas that no state has ever done before when it comes to cracking down on anybody coming across the border. We're going to step up and secure the border even more than we already are."
Abbott told Kelly he has already deployed more than 1,000 Texas Department of Public Safety officers as well as National Guard troops.
"We're going to ratchet up our efforts along the border to make sure we help secure our state and our country," Abbott vowed.
Abbott added that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas "seems to live in a different universe."
"He says the border is secure," Abbott lamented. "It would be outrageous, but it sounds bizarre and crazy, because they literally have no idea. And I can't tell if they're just trying to disinform the public or they really don't know. But they have no idea [of] the magnitude of what's going on at the border."
Abbott noted that neither President Joe Biden nor his border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, has visited the border, adding that Mayorkas has merely "flown by."
"There's a problem at our border that's killing people across the country, and that's the amount of fentanyl that the cartels are coming across the border with, just this year alone, the first four months of this year," Abbott continued, noting human trafficking by Mexican drug cartels in addition to drug trafficking. "There's enough fentanyl at the border, apprehended by the Department of Public Safety, to kill every man, woman and child in the entire state of New York.
"Biden's border policy is deadly dangerous across the country, and they are ignoring that danger."
Abbott also denounced counties in Texas "trying to create their own election laws" in the last presidential election, making election integrity reform much needed in his state.
"That's exactly why we're passing the election integrity reforms that we are — to rein in counties that are not going with the law passed by the state legislature, which is the mandate in the United States Constitution," Abbott said, echoing the objections of the Trump campaign and Republicans that mainstream media has adopted the Democrats' political talking point by claiming it is an "attack on democracy," as Biden asserted in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Tuesday.
Abbott also noted he signed a bill to "defund cities that defund the police," as Democrats have called for in the name of social justice.
"For this to happen in Texas? It did happen in Austin, so I signed a bill to defund Austin," Abbott told Kelly. "Here's the deal: People shouldn't be taxed in a city, and pay revenue to a city, that will not provide police for them."
Abbott said the bill will eliminate a city's ability to increase property taxes, sales taxes or fees.
"This is going to bankrupt the city of Austin," Abbott said. "They need to be looking for a bankruptcy lawyer real quick, because their decision to defund the police will be catastrophic for their city and their bank account."
The myriad aggressive actions against liberal city activism in Texas is one of the biggest reasons the governor has earned the recent endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
"This endorsement is remarkable," Abbott said, adding he took a personal call from Trump right before the Newsmax appearance.
"Unlike what the Democrats are trying to sell, Hispanics on the border really do want their border secure.
"He's all-in 100%. When he gets behind you, nothing can stop it."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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