Texas governor urges Biden to emulate Putin

Texas Governor Greg Abbott accused US President Joe Biden of unwillingness to deal with the country's internal problems and called on him to emulate Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The politician’s statement was made on February 1 on Fox News.

According to him, Biden has eliminated measures introduced by former President Donald Trump to combat illegal migration, which led to the lowest number of illegal entries into American territory in 40 years.

“If the president [Biden] had dealt with real domestic issues rather than trying to play games with Putin—who, by the way, he needs to learn from to work in the interests of his country—then things would be different,” Abbott said.

The situation on the border escalated after the Texas National Guard built a barbed wire fence near the border with Mexico on January 12 in order to combat illegal migration. After the Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court, the latter ordered the removal of the fence, but Texas National Guardsmen do not allow federal patrols to the border.

On January 25, Republican governors from 25 states came out in support of Abbott and Texas' constitutional right to self-defense, accusing Biden of being unwilling to protect American borders from illegal immigrants. That same day, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said Biden should “get out of the way” of Texas security forces and not interfere with their efforts to protect the border with Mexico.

The next day, US authorities demanded that Texas allow federal agents to access the section of the border with Mexico to dismantle the installed barriers, and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Abbott's actions to protect the southern American border unsafe.

It subsequently became known that Texas authorities removed more than 102 thousand illegal migrants from their territory to other states as part of Operation Lone Star, which began in 2022. In turn, Biden, when addressing Congress, announced an order to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to tighten border controls.

Meanwhile, as Izvestia found out on January 27, some residents of the city of Eagle Pass in Mexico argue that the border should not be open and that everything should happen legally.

On January 29, Patrick announced that Texas authorities want to place barbed wire along its entire border. He explained this by the fact that previously more than 3 thousand migrants crossed the border per day. According to him, after the construction of the barriers, this figure became zero.

On January 31, Izvestia journalist Nikolai Masterov said that border guards had installed barriers along the US-Mexico border in Texas. The 48 km long barriers were built contrary to the instructions of the federal authorities. It was also reported that the US Customs Border Protection suspended the operation of two railway bridges on the border with Mexico.