** Texas beefs up border crackdown to stop Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Drugs and Weapons

News Pilot, 07/Mar/2021
- Video and Article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3UoIm1KWEU
-- The program will send law enforcement personnel and resources to "high threat areas" along the border "to deny Mexican Cartels and other smugglers the ability to move drugs and people into Texas.""The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration," Abbott said in a statement. "Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans."The Texas National Guard and DPS will work together on the new program. Abbott’s announcement comes days after a skirmish between the Texas Republican governor and President Biden over the border. "The Biden administration must stop importing COVID into our country," Abbott told CNBC on Thursday. Over 100 illegal immigrants released into the U. S. tested positive for Covid-19 this week."That is a Neanderthal-type approach to dealing with the COVID situation," Abott said, using words the president had a day before used against him. Biden called Abbott’s decision to remove the state’s mask mandates "Neanderthal thinking."Department of Health and Human Services officials project that 117,000 children will arrive at the border unaccompanied this year. It has kept in place Title 42 protections – which allow for migrants to be turned around quickly due to the coronavirus pandemic – but it has so far not sought to apply them to unaccompanied children. Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
** Gov. Abbott Deploys Texas National Guard, State Troopers to Counter Biden’s ‘Open Border Policies’
- Breitbart, Bob Price – 06/Mar/2021
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/03/06/gov-abbott-deploys-texas-national-guard-state-troopers-to-counter-bidens-open-border-policies/
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the deployment of the state’s National Guard and State Troopers to respond to the growing border crisis.
Governor Abbott announced Operation Lone Star “to combat the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas” on Saturday. The operation will integrate the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) with the National Guard, Abbott said. He is ordering the deployment of air, ground, marine, and tactical border security assets to high threat areas.
“The crisis at our southern border continues to escalate because of Biden Administration policies that refuse to secure the border and invite illegal immigration,” the governor said in a written statement Saturday evening. “Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans. We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.”
Abbott issued the deployment order following a meeting with Texas DPS Director Colonel Steve McCraw. The two discussed strategies to increase safety and security along the border.
The announcement follows a massive increase in illegal border crossings since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Earlier this week, Democrat Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) announced that Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 10,000 migrants in the Rio Grande Valley Sector during a seven-day period ending on Wednesday, Breitbart Texas reported.
“We are weeks, maybe even days, away from a crisis on the southern border. Inaction is simply not an option,” Congressman Cuellar said in a written statement. “Our country is currently unprepared to handle a surge in migrants in the middle of the pandemic.”
In Brownsville, Texas, city officials said that six percent of the migrants being released at the bus station to obtain transportation into the U.S. interior are testing positive for COVID-19, Breitbart Texas reported. The Brownsville official said they do not have the authority to prevent those who test positive from boarding buses to travel into the U.S. interior. A worker at the bus station told Fox News they cannot ask passengers for proof of coronavirus test results before transit. Cuellar added, “I urge the Biden Administration to listen and work with the communities on the southern border who are dealing with the surge of migrants.”