WASHINGTON, May 7 (Prensa Latina) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott today criticized US President Joe Biden’s move to send 1,500 troops to the southern border, a force that appears very small for the coming crisis.
“These 1,500 soldiers are supposed to do the paperwork. Because of this government’s failed policy, we need 15,000 or 150,000 to secure the border,” Abbott said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
The Republican governor also criticized Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas for his recent visit to the border, during which he argued that the border point “is not open and was not.”
“He says it’s closed, but everyone in the United States knows it’s more open,” Abbott said.
Concerns about the southern border are mounting as the Title 42 policy, a federal regulation that has allowed the government to tightly regulate border crossings, expires in a few days.
The Biden government has been intensifying its preparations for the end of the current regulation for days, including the deployment of 1,500 soldiers and the establishment of immigration centers throughout Latin America.
Mayorkas stressed that starting this week, Title 8 will apply, a policy that allows “people to be expelled very quickly” and includes a re-entry ban and criminal prosecution.
Under this rule, migrants would theoretically be barred from applying if they cross the border illegally and fail to apply for asylum in a country they have already traveled through.
Troy Miller, the top Customs and Border Protection official, recently told Congress that his agency expects the arrival of up to 10,000 migrants per day after Title 42 ends, which would be nearly double the daily average in March.
jha/adr