Texas governor vows to install more razor wires, expand troops presence on border amid feud with Biden

Texas Governor Abbott asserts that there has been a noticeable decline in illegal border crossings since Texas installed 100 miles of razor wire barriers.

Amid ongoing feud with the Biden administration over migrant crossing, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Sunday that he is enlarging the control of his troops over the southern US border.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott holds a press conference at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, on February 4, 2024. (AFP)

During a press conference in Eagle Pass, Texas, which brought together more than a dozen GOP governors, Abbott called on Biden to take decisive action on the issue, claiming that the POTUS had "completely abdicated and abandoned his responsibility to enforce the laws of the United States."

In presence of Tennessee, Arkansas, Montana and Georgia governors, Abbott stated, “Joe Biden, it is your turn now — your obligation, your duty, to follow the laws Congress passed and secure the border, just as Texas has.”

In recent years, Eagle Pass has become a primary route for unauthorised border crossings. Last month, Texas state officials forbade federal agents of the United States Border Patrol from visiting and monitoring Eagle Pass's Shelby Park.

Abbott asserts that there has been a noticeable decline in illegal border crossings since Texas installed 100 miles of razor wire barriers.

Claiming that he had the right to protect Texas by citing a constitutional provision, Abbott charged that the president encouraged illegal immigration into the country.

"We are here to send a loud and clear message, that we are banding together to fight to ensure that we will be able to maintain our constitutional guarantee, that states will be able to defend against any type of imminent danger or invasion," Abbott told a news conference.

Abbott vs Biden: The battle over illegal immigration

Abbott is being sued by the federal government for erecting barbed wire along the riverbed and seizing control of Shelby Park.

In mid of January, the Biden administration lodged a complaint alleging that Texas national guardsmen blocked federal border police's attempts to reach the river and save the lives of three migrants who had drowned. Texas, however, has denied the charge.

The US Supreme Court heard the lawsuit brought by Biden, and it granted border police permission to dismantle the barbed wire.

In contrast to the order, Abbott has ordered more barriers to be built, and he even gained the backing of Republican governors around the nation who have dispatched their own guardsmen or other assets to the border.

“The Texas National Guard... (are) undertaking operations to expand this effort. We're not going to contain ourselves just to this park. Now we are expanding to further areas to make sure that we will expand our level of deterrence and denial of illegal entry into the United States,” he said.

Abbott, an ardent supporter of former president Donald Trump, who made the war on immigration a central platform of his 2016 campaign, has publicly questioned the legitimacy of the Biden administration and charged it with "deliberate inaction" in the face of a historic surge in border crossings in recent months.

In 2020, Biden ran on a platform of bringing back "humanity" to immigration and reversing divisive Trump administration policies that resulted in a separation of families at the US-Mexico border.