The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas General Land Office have officially made a deal to authorize the construction of a border wall in part of the Rio Grande Valley.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced the deal between the state’s General Land Office (GLO) and the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Bush, the grandson of former president George H. W. Bush and son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, issued a statement that said:
“The signing of this lease agreement is the latest effort by Commissioner Bush to mitigate the immigration crisis following Governor Greg Abbott’s emergency declaration to complete the Texas border wall.
“As the border crisis continues to escalate, the lives of Texans are being endangered and we are at serious risk of losing revenue generated from leased lands along the Texas-Mexico border.
“Washington continues to ignore the Biden Administration’s border crisis, leaving Texans no choice but to take matters into our own hands.
“Lease revenue for this land directly benefits the most important asset in Texas – our schoolchildren.
“As the border crisis continues to escalate, the lives of Texans are being endangered and we are at serious risk of losing revenue generated from leased lands along the Texas-Mexico border.
“I thank DPS for their partnership on this critical issue – working together, we will secure our border.”
From Newsweek:
As a part of Operation Lone Star, the Texas DPS has used approximately 20 steel shipping containers along the Rio Grande riverbank in Eagle Pass to act in place of a wall. Abbott granted both the DPS and National Guard the ability to arrest migrants for criminal trespassing.
There have been reports of a 3,000-person caravan moving through Mexico with the intent of reaching the U.S. Earlier this month, the leader of the caravan said this group intended to converge with a separate caravan to create a group of roughly 4,400-strong. Caravan leaders said another group of roughly 6,000, most of whom come from Haiti, could eventually make its way to Eagle Pass in the near future.
“You might remember the Haitian crisis that happened in Del Rio, we have additional caravans coming as we speak,” Abbott said during an interview with KTSM-TV on November 20.
“We are building the Texas border wall because all law enforcement say that the border wall does provide a deterrent and a funneling method for people coming across the border illegally.”
From Newsmax:
The Texas Senate approved House Bill 9 in September to allocate $1.88 billion toward border security, a move that nearly tripled state spending after already approving $1.05 billion earlier this year.
A recent survey found that more Texans support Abbott’s border policies than those of President Joe Biden.
Nearly half (49%) of respondents said they approved of how Abbott was handling immigration at the southern border, The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler found in a poll taken Nov. 9-16.
Texas Agreement Authorizes Border Wall Construction in the Rio Grande Valley.
It's going up soon.https://t.co/5EqVnaYwgm via @Newsmax
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) November 29, 2021
