Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday assigned National Guard troops to a newly created state border patrol and ordered them to “repel” illegal immigrants who are expected to stream into the U.S. in unprecedented numbers in the coming weeks.
The Republican governor said the border is about to become “a catastrophic disaster” when President Biden ends the pandemic emergency on Thursday and relinquishes the Title 42 powers that had helped keep a lid on the chaos.
He spoke from an airfield in Austin where National Guard troops were loading into helicopters behind him. He said they have been specially trained to serve on his Tactical Border Force. Mr. Abbott also threw his support behind efforts in the Texas Legislature to boost state penalties against illegal border crossers. One would make it a felony to illegally enter Texas from Mexico. Another would impose a 10-year minimum prison sentence for human smugglers.
The Department of Homeland Security has said it expects up to 13,000 people a day, or roughly twice the rate that came in March. That would shatter the already high record numbers that have streamed in during the last two years of the Biden administration.
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