Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office defends the state’s efforts to stop illegal immigration.
AUSTIN, TEXAS—Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas criticized Texas’s attempts to stop illegal immigration while praising Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in addressing the “root causes” of the border crisis.
Mayorkas spoke Sept. 6 at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
The annual festival hosts a slate of political speakers, newsmakers, and journalists who discuss current events.
“This is the first time that in my 20 to 22 years of government service that I have seen a state act in direct contravention of national interests,” Mayorkas said.
Some 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. In March 2021, he put Harris in charge of dealing with illegal immigration. Harris, now the Democratic Party nominee for president, faces criticism for the border crisis as the 2024 election draws near.
Texas has spent $11 billion on Operation Lone Star, deploying thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, transporting illegal immigrants to self-declared sanctuary cities, installing strategic barriers, and building the state’s border wall, according to Andrew Mahaleris, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary.
Texas’s Operation Lone Star was introduced in March 2021 to address “dangerous gaps” in border security created by Biden and Harris, Mahaleris said in an email to The Epoch Times.
Those efforts have decreased illegal border crossings by 85 percent, he said.
“Until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border, Texas will continue utilizing every tool and strategy to respond,” Mahaleris said.
Mayorkas called Abbott’s efforts to bus illegal immigrants to other states and cities without notice to or coordination with receiving cities “incomprehensible” and not good governance.
“Is it purely to wreak havoc and disorder in the receiving communities to make a political point?” Mayorkas said.
He also criticized Senate Bill 4, which Abbott signed into law and was meant to go into effect on March 5, but it instead remains in limbo after the Biden administration sued. Mayorkas said immigration is the federal government’s responsibility.
