Texas county officials along the southern border announced on Tuesday a series of emergency declarations Tuesday in response to the growing number of migrants entering the U.S.
Several county judges asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to dedicate more resources toward addressing illegal immigrant activity at the U.S.-Mexico border amid what they said was lackluster support from the federal government.
“We want America to know that this is real,” Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan told reporters in Bracketville. “The Biden administration won’t do a thing about it. They could stop this thing this hour. They could stop it now. They don’t have the guts.”
Some officials said that the surge in illegal immigration has resulted in property damage, stolen vehicles, gun violence, and other issues resulting from migrants crossing into their counties, many of which are desolate and have scant populations.
“In my community, we have less than 1,000 residents. The thousand residents everyday live in fear of the invasion,” said Dale Lynn Carruthers, the county judge for Terrell County. “We are doing the best we can with limited manpower. Terrell County has the least to offer… but we have a lot of border coverage.”
This comes weeks after police discovered an 18-wheeler that carried up to 100 individuals abandoned in San Antonio, including at least 53 individuals who were deceased.
Abbott lashed out at President Joe Biden and criticized the administration’s immigration policies, tweeting: “They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”
Several other officials also blamed Biden for not doing enough to secure the southern border, including Sen. Ted Cruz, who also tweeted about the incident.
“How many more people have to die before Dems give a da–?” he asked, before referring to the president’s border crisis.
The U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers after Biden announced that he would be lifting “Title 42,” a controversial border policy implemented by former President Donald Trump back in March 2020 that allowed the U.S. Border Patrol to turn migrants away.
“Title 42” has since been used by both the Trump and Biden administration, with the latter arguing that it was necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19 inside border detention facilities.
