Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has made curbing illegal immigration a top priority, and his efforts go beyond focusing solely on the southern border with Mexico. He is now turning his attention to preventing individuals who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border from entering Texas through neighboring states, specifically New Mexico.
In an interview with NewsNation, Abbott highlighted a key concern: “There are people who cross from Mexico into New Mexico and then right over into El Paso, and that’s something we have to deal with.” To address this issue, Abbott has proposed constructing a fence along the Texas-New Mexico border, in addition to the razor wire and other barriers Texas has already installed along the Mexican border in places like Eagle Pass. These measures are part of his broader initiative, Operation Lone Star, aimed at tightening border security. However, Abbott’s border strategy has faced legal opposition, with the Biden administration arguing that Abbott is exceeding his legal authority.
Despite these legal challenges, Abbott remains steadfast in his goal of stopping illegal immigration. “Let’s assume Texas does succeed in reducing illegal immigration to zero percent into our state, which is our goal,” Abbott stated. “All those terrorists, all those murderers, all those rapists, they’re just going to go through New Mexico and Arizona and California.” Abbott’s stance underscores his belief that illegal immigration is a nationwide problem that cannot be solved by state efforts alone.
In terms of illegal immigration numbers, New Mexico faces its own unique challenges. According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, New Mexico has seen a significant number of border crossings in recent years, although the state’s overall border traffic is much lower than Texas or Arizona.
Data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that apprehensions in New Mexico fluctuate but remain a consistent concern for border officials. In fiscal year 2021, CBP reported over 200,000 migrant encounters in the El Paso sector, which includes southern New Mexico.
Abbott has also pointed to an 85% decrease in border crossings as evidence of the effectiveness of his border security measures. However, he argues that this decline started before Joe Biden’s late actions aimed at deterring illegal immigration. “That was after Texas began our accelerated operations to deny illegal entry, using the guard, using the razor wire, using the pepper ball,” Abbott said, attributing the initial decrease to Texas’s enforcement efforts.
Ultimately, Abbott believes that the solution to the border crisis lies at the federal level, arguing that immigration reform can only be fully addressed by Congress, which refuses to act on H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support. Democrats, who control the Senate, have refused to let it come before the chamber for a vote.
As illegal immigration continues to bludgeon Democrats, Kamala Harris has now come out in favor of the border wall along the southern border after previously claiming it is a waste of money. Far-left New Mexico Congressman Gabe Vasquez, a close ally of Harris and in a difficult reelection battle to keep his seat, which stretches across New Mexico’s entire southern border with Mexico, has attempted to come off strong on the border in recent months. However, he has previously called the border barrier “racist,” racist,” urged the Biden-Harris administration to “tear what’s left of it down,” and called it a “vanity project.”
“Gabe Vasquez and many of his fellow progressives just had the rug pulled out from under them by Kamala Harris after her abrupt flip-flop on the border. As a politician unable to think for himself, it won’t be surprising if he, too tries to change his anti-border security position. Even if he tries, Vasquez won’t be able to hide his lengthy pro-illegal immigration record from voters,” said the Congressional Leadership Fund’s Regional Press Secretary Maureen O’Toole.
Sen. Martin Heinrich is also taking the heat for his open-borders stance, being extremely critical of the border wall, calling it a “symbol of hatred, fear, and intolerance.” He is polling within single digits of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Nella Domenici.
New Mexico’s Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a far-left Democrat, and Vasquez ally, remains the only border state governor who has done nothing to curb the flow of human trafficking and fentanyl from across the border. Even Democrat Govs. Katie Hobbs of Arizona and Gavin Newsom of California have put state resources to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis on the border.
Lujan Grisham hates walls so much that she even ran through a wall in a political ad during her gubernatorial run, labeling a strong border as “Trump’s wall.”
