Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Texas Governor Greg Abbott holding a press conference at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on February 4, 2024. Abbott has released a statement claiming asylum reforms released by President Biden on Thursday will “do nothing to slow the record-breaking illegal immigration.”
SERGIO FLORES/AFP/GETTY
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has criticized new asylum rules President Joe Biden proposed, saying they “do nothing to slow the record-breaking illegal immigration.”
Thursday, Biden unveiled proposals that would expedite the asylum process for certain groups, including those with prior criminal convictions. For these categories, asylum officers would be given the power to decide migrants are ineligible for asylum at their initial screening, rather than waiting potentially months for a judge to make the ruling.
Irregular immigration has become a prominent political issue over the past few years, with 9.8 million migrant encounters recorded between October 2019 and January 2024, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. On April 12, Abbott said 507,200 migrants suspected of entering the country illegally had been detained in his state since 2021 when he launched Operation Lone Star to combat illegal crossings.
On X, formerly Twitter, Abbott wrote that Biden’s proposed asylum reforms would make no difference to the level of irregular migration and issued an ultimatum to the president: “Follow Texas’ lead—or get out of the way.”
In an accompanying statement, the governor said: “To be clear, President Biden’s feckless proposals, which he could have done years ago, do nothing to slow the record-breaking illegal immigration.
“Most notably, President Biden sidesteps actually enforcing the laws already enacted by Congress. President Biden is not just authorized—he is required—to deny illegal entry, detain illegal immigrants, and build border barriers.”
Newsweek has contacted the press offices for Abbott and the White House for comment via email outside business hours.
Abbott also accused the Biden administration of seeking to obstruct Operation Lone Star, which has seen Texas National Guard soldiers construct razor wire along the border with Mexico and place floating buoys in the Rio Grande.
He continued: “Maybe worse, President Biden attacks Texas for simply doing what Congress compelled him to do. Texas is building a border wall, installing hundreds of miles of razor wire and buoy barriers, and deploying thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers.
“Our efforts have led to a substantial decline in illegal immigration into Texas while it remains on the rise in other border states. Operation Lone Star is working, and President Biden would do well to follow our lead, or get out of the way.”
Over the past few months, illegal immigration has caused an explosion in tensions between the Biden administration and the Texas governor.
On January 22, the Supreme Court ruled federal agents could remove razor wire placed along the Texas-Mexico border on Abbott’s orders. In response, the governor said his state was being “invaded” and invoked its “constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.”
A joint statement was released by 25 other Republican governors in support of Abbott, and Trump urged GOP-controlled states to deploy National Guard troops to Texas to support border control efforts.
A survey of eligible U.S. voters conducted exclusively for Newsweek in April found that 20 percent believed the country had “control over its borders,” a fall from 34 percent in August 2023.
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This story was originally published May 10, 2024, 5:30 AM.