President-elect Donald Trump’s border enforcer Tom Homan is heading to Texas to arrange for his crackdown on unlawful crossings.
Lone Star State Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned Homan will examine the Texas-Mexico border with him throughout a go to later this week.
He praised Homan as “the right guy in charge” to safe the border and deport unlawful migrants.
“There’s a tall task for President Trump to find, to locate these people and then to deport them or to jail them,” Abbott mentioned Sunday on the “Cats Roundtable” 770 “WABC radio.
“We’ve got the right guy in charge of it. His name is Tom Homan. He’s going to be the border czar. I’ve already begun to work with him. He’s going to be joining me in Texas this coming week.”
Abbott, who has clashed with the outgoing Biden administration over its dangerously lax border insurance policies and refusal to cooperate with Texas on a crackdown, mentioned he’s thrilled to now have a keen companion to collectively deal with the disaster.
“We’ve had people who were antagonistic to Texas securing the border. Now we have allies. It’s going to be Texas working collaboratively with the Trump administration,” Abbott mentioned.
“For one, we’re going to secure the border. For another, we’re going to have to remove from our country all these dangerous criminals to restore peace and safety in our communities.”
The governor mentioned that arresting and deporting members of the Venezuelan jail gang Tren de Aragua might be a high precedence for each the Trump administration and Texas.
“You’ve seen these outbreaks of the Tren de Aragua gang members here in New York. We have the Tren de Aragua members in Texas also. … We have to stop the murders by the people who Biden allowed into the country illegally,” Abbott mentioned.
Texas has declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist group.
Homan has mentioned that deporting the gang members is a part of his mission.
He bought choked up throughout a current interview discussing the homicide of Laken Riley by unlawful migrant and Tren member Jose Ibarra and mentioned he ought to have by no means set foot within the nation.
“We’re using law enforcement at the federal, state and local level to go after them more than any other state in America,” Abbott mentioned Sunday. “We’ve made hundreds of arrests already. If you’re a member of Tren de Aragua in Texas, you’re going to be arrested. You’re going to be jailed.”
Texas, a border state, has been floor zero for grappling with unlawful crossings for many years.
However when the crossings spiraled uncontrolled two years in the past, Abbott started placing 1000’s of migrants on buses to New York Metropolis and different city facilities in blue states to unfold the burden of coping with the disaster. It turned out to be an excellent political technique regardless of the criticism, forcing Democratic mayors together with the Massive Apple’s Eric Adams to publicly stress and criticize Biden over the issue.
Texas authorities final week added extra buoy obstacles throughout sections of the Rio Grande to attempt to thwart unlawful crossings after the Biden administration unsuccessfully sued the state over the floating barricades.
Abbott mentioned Sunday that much more buoys, fencing and partitions might be used to deter crossings.
Homan advised The Put up final week how he’ll use the navy, too, to assist within the deportations of unlawful migrants.
Homan, who served because the appearing director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout Trump’s first time period, mentioned he’ll make use of servicemen to carry out “non-enforcement” duties equivalent to offering transportation to liberate extra ICE brokers to do subject work.
He mentioned he’s able to do battle with sanctuary cities and states equivalent to New York that forestall native legislation enforcement officers from speaking with the feds on the idea of immigration standing.
The incoming border enforcer mentioned harboring unlawful migrants is a felony.
“Don’t cross that line,” he mentioned.
