Following the End of the Texas Legislative Session, Greg Abbott Finally Announces Bor
Following the End of the Texas Legislative Session, Greg Abbott Finally Announces Border Wall Plan
by Jose Nino
June 24, 2021
Last week, Governor Greg Abbott announced a new plan for the State of Texas to build its very own border wall. This comes against the backdrop of a raging border crisis taking place at the southern border.
“The problems that people are experiencing on the border just continue to get worse,” declared Abbott, while he was next to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan, and several Republican elected officials from both chambers of the Texas State Legislature.
“Make no mistake, the border crisis we are experiencing right now are a direct result of the open border policies implemented by President Biden,” the Texas governor continued.
Abbott revealed that state agencies got in touch with private landowners who live in various parts of Texas’ border with Mexico to discuss the installation of fencing on their land to curtail the influx of illegal aliens. However, Abbott stressed that much “more needed to be done.”
“Today we are announcing that Texas will build a border wall in our state to secure our border,” remarked Abbott.
Brandon Waltens of Texas Scorecard observed that Abbott “signed a letter directing the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager in charge of the project.” In addition, Abbott signed off on another order, under the purview of a disaster declaration that was issued on the border earlier in July, that allocated $250 million of state funds towards a “down payment” to kick off the construction of the border wall. Further, Abbott called on Texan residents to pitch in with private contributions to help fund the border wall plan.
As far as reaching out to the federal government, Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that the feds return land along the border that it seized on a prior occasion so that the Texas state government can continue its construction of the border wall.
Patrick and Phelan congratulated Abbott’s decision. Patrick declared that the order could be one of the “most important documents in the history of Texas.” Phelan revealed he would assign a number of House committees with interim charges connected to border security in the near future.
Waltens noted that “Legislation filed earlier this year by State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) to build a Texas border wall (and name it after President Donald Trump) was not even given a committee hearing in the Texas House.” Waltens also pointed out that Abbott did not make the border wall a “priority during the legislative session”, but now claims “that increasing numbers of illegal immigration necessitated the approach now.”
Slaton, who was in attendance during the press conference, had some qualms with the governor’s sudden, unilateral manner of approaching this matter.
”I’m happy the governor is acting, but I have questions,” Slaton said to Texas Scorecard in an interview. “If he could have done this unilaterally, why didn’t he do it years ago?”
“I think the legislature should be the ones making these decisions,” Slayton continued.
Chad Prather, a comedian and conservative media personality who has stepped into the ring as a primary challenger to Abbott, informed Texas Scorecard that he has repeatedly urged Abbott to proactively take on border security.
“While border security and immigration is ultimately a Federal responsibility, we have seen tremendous failure from DC since February after President Biden took office which has resulted in an influx of illegal immigration into the US, a humanitarian crisis, human trafficking, and drug smuggling at the Texas border. In the obvious absence of Federal responsibility, Texas must step up to protect our 1254 mile border along Mexico,” stated Prather.
“Finally after more than 6 months of Federal incompetence, Gov. Abbott is finally taking action to protect our border and stop illegal immigration into our Great State. We must also push the Federal Government to allow our fine Border Patrol and ICE Agents to do their jobs,” the comedian continued. “This issue is seeping in to America and every citizen needs to be aware of what is going on. This is a national crisis. As Texans, we are on
the frontlines and must put a stop to it.”
Another of Abbott’s primary challengers former Texas State Senator Don Huffines has placed major stress on curbing illegal immigration. Last week, he said “I would like to thank ‘all talk, no action’ Greg Abbott for joining my campaign by admitting that as governor he’s had the power for the last seven years to close down the Texas border, and has refused to do so.” In this case, Huffines was alluding to Abbott’s change in tone that the former state senator believes is the product of his strong primary challenge.
“As governor, I will finish Trump’s wall and actually close down the border. I will also end taxpayer subsidies to illegal aliens that Greg Abbott is funding in his current budget,” he continued.
America First conservatives should take note about the value of primaries to challenge weak incumbents who have failed to deliver on conservative policy items such as Big Tech censorship and education reform. Even if a primary challenger does not end up winning, a properly-run primary campaign can force incumbents to change their political behavior in a manner that is more receptive to grassroots voters’ demands.
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