But it’s actually a humanitarian disaster exacerbated by Biden.
Amid an influx of Haitian migrants, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is trying to stir up fear about a crisis at the border yet again. On Thursday, he said that he had ordered state troopers and the Texas National Guard to “ shut down six points of entry along the southern border” at the direction of federal immigration authorities as thousands of Haitian migrants await their turn to enter the US under an international bridge in the city of Del Rio in southwest Texas. But Abbott backtracked just hours later, claiming that the Biden administration had “ flip-flopped ” on its request for state assistance. The Department of Homeland Security has said that it isn’t asking Texas for help in shutting down ports of entry and that it would be a “ violation of federal law for the Texas National Guard to unilaterally do so.” The situation in Del Rio — where more than 12,000 migrants are camping in increasingly squalid conditions without adequate access to water, food, and sanitation — is growing dire from a humanitarian perspective. Most of these migrants are from Haiti and plan to seek asylum in the US, as is their right under federal and international law. In just the last few months, Haiti has suffered from a political crisis stemming from President Jovenel Moïse’s July assassination, resultant gang violence, and the two-punch of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and a tropical storm that left about 2,200 dead and many thousands more injured or missing. Those conditions appear to have driven more Haitians to make the treacherous journey to the US border: Federal immigration authorities have encountered more than 30,000 Haitians this fiscal year, nearly six times the number encountered over the previous fiscal year. But Abbott has sought to twist that humanitarian crisis into a security crisis designed to appeal to Republican voters in his state, who have long identified immigration and border security as top priorities in public opinion polling. He told the Texas Tribune that he was trying to “stop these [migrant] caravans from overrunning our state” and described US Customs and Border Protection agents as “overwhelmed by the chaos.” That’s in line with his recent rhetoric trying to demonize migrants arriving on the southern border as lawbreakers and carriers of disease. Other Texas Republicans have followed suit, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who warned during a Fox News segment on Friday of an “ invasion ” of migrants who could “take over our country without firing a shot.” It’s a political ploy to hit President Joe Biden on a perceived weak spot and pursue the kind of restrictive immigration policies that former President Donald Trump popularized and made a priority. But despite Texas Republicans’ efforts to portray Biden as an “open borders” Democrat, the attack isn’t rooted in truth: The president has maintained Trump-era policies designed to keep migrants out, regardless of whether they might have legitimate asylum claims. If there is any crisis at the border, it is a humanitarian one, begun under the Trump administration and exacerbated by Biden.
