(Headline USA) Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott warned immigration officials this week that more than 100,000 illegal immigrants will try to cross the southern border into his state if the Biden administration succeeds in repealing Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows agents to turn migrants away immediately.
President Joe Biden has been trying to roll back Title 42 for months, and is still working on dismantling the policy – even after a federal judge ruled earlier this month that he needed to leave it in place.
Abbott praised the judge’s decision, but said it will only delay the inevitable.
“There are maybe as many as 100,000 migrants who are across the border waiting to cross into the state of Texas,” Abbott said during a press conference on Monday.
“And we as a state — ‘we’ being the local communities that are represented here in this room today — they’re all dealing with the enormous challenge of having a tidal wave of people come into the communities.”
Right now, Eagle Pass, Texas, is seeing 1,000 illegal immigrants taken into custody every single day, according to Mayor Rolando Salinas.
“This border issue — it’s a mess. I would describe it as chaos right now,” Salinas told the Washington Examiner.
“You have large groups coming in. It’s become normal to see a group of 20 people on Main Street, at Dairy Queen, at the lake. A lot of them have been released. They’re just walking around our city.”
BREAKING: The biggest group we’ve seen so far just crossed illegally into Eagle Pass, TX. Several hundred. Many had already crossed before I started recording. This is now the 6th day in a row we’ve seen a massive group cross here in the late AM hours. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/P2Du3169wr
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 16, 2022
Texas Department of Public Safety Col. Steve McCraw said Abbott’s 100,000 figure comes from an estimate of how many migrants are residing in Mexican shelters, hotels, and government housing just across the border. Each of the migrants has paperwork authorizing them to be in Mexico, he added.
