Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, held a press conference Saturday to debut the construction of a border wall in Rio Grande City, months after the state announced it would construct its own border wall. The press conference occurred during the initial phase of the wall construction on state land managed by the Texas General Land Office.
“Texas is taking what truly is unprecedented action by any state ever. For a state to build a wall on our border, to secure and safeguard the sovereignty of the United States as well as our own state,” Gov. Abbott said during the press conference.
Abbott also slammed the Biden administration for failing to enforce immigration laws that have left “staggering consequences.”
“Already this year, there have been over 1.2 million people apprehended coming over the border illegally,” the Texas governor added, not including those who have been undetected.
Abbott further raised red flags concerning the amount of fentanyl coming in through the borders. Fentanyl deadly enough to “kill every man, woman and child in Texas, California, New York, Illinois, and Florida combined.”
The governor then commanded the work crews to “panel up” to begin working on the wall.
Abbott first announced the Lone Star State’s plan to construct a border wall back in June. He then processed to transfer $250 million to launch the construction and directed the TFC to hire a manager to oversee the project. By September, the manager was selected, and the governor signed a bill providing an additional $1.8 billion in state funding for border security.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin shared pictures on Twitter of the wall process on Friday, writing, “State land, state money. This particular contractor was building Trump’s wall until Biden cancelled them.”
Abbott responded, “Texas has officially started building its own border wall.”
