AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott today demanded President Joe Biden immediately deploy federal assets to address the dire border crisis, particularly in the City of El Paso, as a dangerously cold polar vortex moves into Texas this week.

“This terrible crisis for border communities in Texas is a catastrophe of your own making,” reads the letter. “These communities and the state are ill-equipped to do the job assigned to the federal government—house the thousands of migrants flooding into the country every day. With perilous temperatures moving into the area, many of these migrants are at risk of freezing to death on city streets. The need to address this crisis is not the job of border states like Texas. Instead, the U.S. Constitution dictates that it is your job, Mr. President, to defend the borders of our country, regulate our nation’s immigration, and manage those who seek refuge here.”

In the letter to President Biden, the Governor highlights the acute humanitarian crisis caused by federal inaction to secure America’s southern border that is putting the lives of migrants at risk, with thousands of men, women, and children illegally crossing into Texas every day and those numbers expected to increase if Title 42 expulsions end.

Governor Abbott will continue working with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Texas Military Department, and all other available state assets to protect Texas from the influx of illegal immigrants and cartel activity in the absence of President Biden performing his constitutional duty to secure the southern border.

Read Governor Abbott’s letter to President Biden.

Governor Abbott has taken unprecedented action to secure the border in the wake of the federal government’s inaction, including:

• Securing $4 billion in funding for Texas’ border security efforts
• Launching Operation Lone Star and deploying thousands of Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers
• Taking aggressive action to aid border communities, including busing thousands of migrants to Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia
• Designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations to keep Texans safe amid the growing national fentanyl crisis
• Arresting and jailing criminals trespassing or committing other state crimes along the southern border
• Issuing an executive order authorizing the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to return illegal immigrants to the border at ports of entry
• Allocating resources to acquire 1,700 unused steel panels to build the border wall in Texas
• Signing a law to make it easier to prosecute smugglers bringing people into Texas
• Signing 15 laws cracking down on human trafficking in Texas
• Signing a law enhancing penalties for the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl
• Issuing a disaster declaration for the border crisis
• Issuing an executive order preventing non-governmental entities from transporting illegal immigrants
• Signing memoranda of understanding between the State of Texas and the States of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to enhance border security measures in their states that will prevent illegal immigration from Mexico to Texas
• Activating the Joint Border Security Operations Center (JBSOC) and directing the Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Military Department, and Texas Division of Emergency Management to coordinate Texas’ response to secure the border