Amid a surge in illegal border crossings and in the face of a polar vortex, more than 400 Texas National Guard troops were dispatched to El Paso on Monday to stem the flow of criminal non-citizens into the United States as part of the greater state’s “strengthened border security effort.”
Since then, guardsmen and armed soldiers have formed a line along the banks of the Rio Grande, preventing those crossing the river from surrendering to Border Patrol officers.
Border Patrol officers behind the line would not process illegal immigrants, instead letting guards turn them away, the Texas Tribune reported.
The guards used Spanish to inform potential cross-borderers that they had no option but to cross and advise them to attempt to enter the country through a legal port of entry.
This morning, service members deployed to El Paso, Texas constructed a triple-strand concertina barrier near the border to secure the area from illegal crossings@36thInfantryDiv pic.twitter.com/MpGLS7axYs
— Texas Military Dept. (@TXMilitary) December 20, 2022
The Texas Military Department has released footage of troops from the 36th Infantry Division building a barbed wire fence to deter illegal crossings.
According to the Texas Tribune, more than 1,000 feet of razor wire was erected this week.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin posted a video showing TNG members preparing for a wave of illegal immigrants with strategically placed Humvees.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser announced a state of emergency over the weekend, indicating that neither citizens nor illegal immigrants were safe.
The Texas Military Department announced Monday that the TNG has activated and deployed airlift assets from the 136th Airlift Wing in Fort Worth, which had been on standby since last week.
As a result, four C-130J cargo planes expedited the “movement of soldiers and equipment toward El Paso” as part of Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s safety initiative.
“The deployment includes a security response force composed of elements from the 606th Military Police Battalion deployed to El Paso, Texas,” the Texas Military Department said. “A second Security Response Force from MP Company 236 remains on high alert, ready to deploy to other areas of the border if necessary.”
A Tuesday statement from the governor’s office said that, in addition to the Texas Military Department, Abbott is working with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Division of Emergency Management to stem the influx of non-citizen criminals.
These efforts come more than a month after Abbott declared an “invasion” on the southern border and indicated he would take a series of “unprecedented steps … to keep our state and country safe.”
As the TNG and other state forces hold the line, Texas hopes the federal government will step up to help at the border, which the president has yet to visit.
Abbott wrote to President Joe Biden on Tuesday, telling him, “This terrible crisis for border communities in Texas is a catastrophe of your making.”
“Texas has borne an unbalanced burden caused by its open border policies. The need to address this crisis is not the job of border states like Texas,” Abbott wrote. “Instead, the Constitution of the United States mandates that it is your job, Mr. President, to defend our country’s borders, regulate our nation’s immigration, and police those who seek refuge here.”
The governor called on Biden to deploy federal resources to “address the serious problems he has caused” and to “fulfill the duties that the United States Constitution requires you to perform.”
While TNG has beefed up its presence in anticipation of the end of Title 42, which many predict would open the door for an alarming number of attempts by non-citizen criminals to rob the United States, the Trump-era policy remains temporarily in effect. By order of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Despite the Department of Homeland Security’s recent admission that thousands of recent deportations were Title 42 removals, the Biden administration has nevertheless renewed its request for the Supreme Court to reverse the policy.
Leeser, the mayor of El Paso, has suggested that 20,000 illegal immigrants are “ready to enter El Paso” and many more to remain in the United States after Title 42 is removed.
According to the New York Post, all the beds in El Paso’s shelters are full, its illegal immigration detention center holds 1,500 people, and about 800 people have been released onto the streets. This video appears to show some of the hundreds of non-citizen criminals now crowding the streets of El Paso.
