TEXAS WILL NOT TOLERARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Gov. Abbott calls on Texas jailers to assist border sheriffs

 

KWTX & AP 

June 25, 2021

WACO, Texas - Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday issued a call for jailers across the state to assist sheriffs along the southern border who are now expected to detain undocumented immigrants as the state deals with an influx of migrants.

In mid-June, Abbott, a frequent critic of the Biden Administration’s immigration policies, held a Border Security Summit in Del Rio, Texas and announced undocumented immigrants who commit criminal trespass will be arrested and detained by law enforcement in Texas.

Gov. Abbott on Friday asked jailers to help operating detention facilities and to provide jail beds for undocumented migrants arrested on state charges.

“The state is seeking jailers with supervisory and release experience, trained booking officers with TLETS/AFIS experience, and current or former jailers who were honorably discharged within the last two years,” said Abbott.

Friday’s order is part of the governor’s disaster declaration directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to enforce all federal and state criminal laws for criminal trespassing, illegal entry, smuggling, and human trafficking.

The declaration also directed the Texas Commission on Jail Standards and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to work with counties included in the declaration to establish alternative detention facilities to create jail space for undocumented immigrants.

“The State of Texas will not tolerate criminal activity, which is why we are stepping up to address this crisis in the Biden Administration’s absence,” said Governor Abbott.

Since President Joe Biden took office, Abbott has positioned Texas as the foremost antagonist to the federal government’s border policies.

He suggested, without evidence, that migrants with COVID-19 were putting Texans at risk as a result of Biden easing Trump-era immigration measures.

In June, Abbott shuttered more than 50 shelters in Texas that house thousands of migrant children.

His intentions to resume one of Trump’s best-known and incomplete promises — building more of the wall — is a step Texas has not previously taken amid a decade of escalating spending and deployments to the border with Mexico.

Abbott said Texas will start by shifting $250 million in state dollars toward the new barrier and finance more through crowdsourcing, setting up a webpage and post office box so supporters of the project can donate their own money. The project has so far raised more than $459,000, according to his office.

The governor claims “homes are being invaded” along the border and landowners are losing livestock and crops because of “the carnage that is being caused by the people who are coming across the border.”

Sheriffs and jailers who wish to answer Abbott’s call should contact the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement at TCOLE@soc.texas.gov.