A few weeks ago, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in an interview that the goal of Operation Lone Star is 'reducing illegal immigration to zero percent'. But the following passage of the interview showed the governor saying that they would get through the country anyway through Democratic-led states: "all those terrorists, all those murderers, all those rapists, they're just going to go through New Mexico and Arizona and California." He also added that "there are people who cross from Mexico into New Mexico and then right over into El Paso, and that's something we have to deal with."
His stance on New Mexico's management of immigration was reiterated even further this week as the governor announced that Texas is now "tripling" razor wire fencing along the riverbank between the state and New Mexico. KTSM cameras captured Texas Army National Guard troops installing the razor wire fencing which stretches from West Paisano Drive to the Texas side of the Anapra, N.M., bridge between El Paso and Sunland Park
On Wednesday, New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed her concern with the measure. In a statement reported by Albuquerque's KRQE News, she said:
"Gov. Abbott seems to be pushing to make Texas its own country without regard for his neighbors or the fact that Texas is already part of a great nation—the United States. If he doesn't think that New Mexico is important to the overall well-being of Texas, then he must be forgetting about the Permian Basin and the oil industry that straddles our two states. I don't see him laying concertina wire there."
Grisham went on to label the measure by the governor as his "latest political stunt at the border", adding that it will "have no meaningful impact on our nation's broken immigration system". She also said that only Congress could fix federal immigration laws and called on Republicans to "stop holding up the carefully negotiated, bipartisan agreement they are deliberately stalling in Washington."
Grisham also took to X to take additional jabs at governor Abbott:
If @GovAbbott doesn't think that #NewMexico is important to the overall well-being of #Texas, then he must be forgetting about the #PermianBasin and the oil industry that straddles our two states. I don't see him laying concertina wire there. https://t.co/gtWmWCvZYs
— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) September 19, 2024
Texas saw a slight increase in apprehensions in August, mirroring the national trend, but figures are still much lower than the records reached in December.
Concretely, agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector encountered 5,244 migrants last month, a 4% increase compared to July's 5,032. The Del Rio Sector, in turn, saw a 6% increase, apprehending 7,666 migrants compared to 7,236 in July. September's figures are still 71% and 89% lower than December, respectively.
According to Border Report, the Del Rio Sector was the fourth busiest one on the southwest border behind San Diego, El Paso and Tucson. The Rio Grande Valley one was fifth.
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