Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s version of a welcome mat for President Joe Biden was more like a manifesto — telling Biden to finally fix the mess the border has become.
Biden landed in El Paso, Texas, Sunday, making his first visit of his presidency to the southern border, according to the Washington Times.
To mark the occasion, Abbott hand-delivered a letter to the president on the airport tarmac, criticizing the visit and demanding Biden take five immediate steps to end the crisis he helped set off.
In the letter, Abbott wrote that the visit was “$20 billion too little and two years too late.”
I asked Gov Abbott why he decided to greet Biden in El Paso today. Here’s what he said: https://t.co/UTxLUHrTY9@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/bhBePGPUDj
— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) January 8, 2023
Video aired by San Antonio’s KENS-TV caught the moment on camera.
Abbott hands Biden the letter at about the 58-second mark of the clips below:
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Abbott criticized the scripted nature of the visit, saying it was designed to ensure Biden never sees the full scope of the problem Abbott lays at Biden’s door.
The New York Post reported Saturday that El Paso authorities had dismantled migrant camps and bused hundreds of illegal aliens across the border to Mexico in preparation for Biden’s visit.
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“[Y]our visit avoids the sites where mass illegal immigration occurs and sidesteps the thousands of angry Texas property owners whose lives have been destroyed by your border policies. Even the city you visit has been sanitized of the migrant camps which had overrun downtown El Paso because your Administration wants to shield you from the chaos that Texans experience on a daily basis. This chaos is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted,” Abbott wrote.
El Paso clears downtown of expansive migrant camps ahead of Biden visit.
Why not show him what our border community and law enforcement officials are dealing with on a daily basis.
— Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) January 6, 2023
Abbott contrasted the damage Biden did with the stronger border that was enhanced by the policies of former President Donald Trump.
“Under President Trump, the federal government achieved historically low levels of illegal immigration. Under your watch, by contrast, America is suffering the worst illegal immigration in the history of our country. Your open-border policies have emboldened the cartels, who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings. Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure, sometimes with their very lives, as local leaders from your own party will tell you if given the chance,” Abbott wrote.
Abbott told Biden that it is past time he lived up to the responsibilities of his office.
“All of this is happening because you have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against invasion through faithful execution of federal laws. Halfway through your presidency, though, I can finally welcome you to the border. When you finish the photo-ops in a carefully stage-managed version of El Paso, you have a job to do,” the letter stated.
“You must comply with the many statutes mandating that various categories of aliens ‘shall’ be detained, and end the practice of unlawfully paroling aliens en masse,” Abbott wrote.
“You must stop sandbagging the implementation of the Remain-in-Mexico policy and Title 42 expulsions, and fully enforce those measures as the federal courts have ordered you to do.”
Abbott demanded Biden take positive steps on border security and let Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents do their jobs.
“You must aggressively prosecute illegal entry between ports of entry, and allow ICE to remove illegal immigrants in accordance with existing federal laws,” Abbott wrote, adding, “You must immediately resume construction of the border wall in the State of Texas, using the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for that purpose.”
Abbott also said Biden should finally get tough on the crime wave engulfing Americans in a sea of deadly fentanyl.
“You must designate the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations,” Abbott said, telling Biden to finally “[s]ecure our border by enforcing Congress’s immigration laws.”
In El Paso, we are protesting Joe Biden’s pathetic visit.
He isn’t here to solve the problems. He ordered the streets clear before his visit like Kim Jong Un.
We’re disgusted by this public scam he’s pulling.
Go home, Joe!
— Irene Armendariz-Jackson (@ArmendarizDis16) January 8, 2023
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd said the visit is only taking place because illegal immigration is actually having an impact Democrat-led states and cities because Texas and Arizona have begun busing illegal immigrants to so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions, such as New York City, according to Fox News.
“He’s not coming to the border of his own accord,” Judd said. “He would have done that a long, long time ago.”
“Because you now have Democrats, his constituency, his base, now that they’re upset, now you’ve got [New York City Mayor] Eric Adams, you’ve got the governor of Colorado. That’s the only reason that he’s coming to the border. And it’s two years too late,” he said.
