Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on May 8 that he is deploying his state’s tactical border force to border hotspots to repel illegal crossings from migrants.
“These elite soldiers will fill in the gaps in preparation for Title 42 ending this week,” Abbott wrote in a post on Twitter.
He added, “In [President Joe] Biden’s absence, Texas continues taking unprecedented action to respond to this crisis.”
In a video interview with Fox News, Abbott said the border force is “made up of Elite National Guard, who are specifically trained for one thing. And that is to identify areas where illegal immigrants are trying to cross the border and to fill that gap and to repel them, to deny them access to entry into the United States.”
Title 42, which allowed an expedited process by the government to expel illegal migrants from the U.S., ends this Thursday, May 11.
Some reports indicate there are as many as 700,000 waiting to enter the U.S. southern border when Title 42 ends.
Abbott said Texas’s tactical border force could repel migrants in several ways: “they can physically turn back those who are trying to cross the border illegally. Also, they were building immediate concertina wire border barriers that prevent people from coming across the border.”
National guard troops are said to be readying Black Hawk helicopters and C-130 transport planes in preparation for the operation.
BREAKING: Texas has deployed their own Texas Tactical Border Force as migrants wait to storm the border once Title 42 ends.
The Texas National Guard is readying Black Hawk helicopters and C-130s as they brace for an invasion along the southern border.
– El Paso says 15,000 are… pic.twitter.com/JDmDnmPgi3
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 8, 2023
The governor shared images and video of troops installing razor wire in Brownsville, a border town located in the southeast corner of the state near South Padre Island, as well as in El Paso, just across the border from the city of Juarez.
“You saw an early iteration of this back in December, when you saw long lines of people trying to cross into El Paso. In a matter of 24 hours, the National Guard built a concertina wire border barrier and it stopped that inflow immediately,” he said. “We’re using strategies like that up and down the border to identify locations where the cartels are trying to smuggle people across the border and put a stop to it.”
