The White House views the latest actions at the southern border by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) as a “problem” that the Biden administration is closely monitoring and could respond to with legal action come Thursday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon that the way that the third-term GOP governor is “getting involved” is “extreme” and has not gone unnoticed by Washington.
“There’s been multiple actions that the governor has taken blocking Border Patrol from accessing the border — that’s a problem when he’s blocking them,” Jean-Pierre said. “He continues to prove that he’s not interested — he’s not really interested in solutions, only seeking to politicize the border.”
At present, Texas officials are “preventing” Border Patrol agents from doing their job in a 2.5-mile stretch of the border in south-central Texas, she said.
“So, that is a problem. That is a problem,” Jean-Pierre said. “He’s taking away the duties of what the Border Patrol is supposed to do. And so, it’s a problem.”
Jean-Pierre also pointed to Abbott’s having state soldiers install razor wire to prevent immigrants from walking up the riverbank as having negatively affected Border Patrol and made their jobs “more dangerous.”
“What he’s doing at the border, his policy, how he’s getting involved, it’s extreme right. It’s extreme political stunts,” she said. “We have said it demonizes and dehumanizes people.”
The White House’s criticism comes days after the state commandeered city land that runs along the Eagle Pass city boundary with the Rio Grande, a river that immigrants must cross to get from Mexico into the United States.
Texas authorities locked down the area last week to prevent federal agents from the Border Patrol from accessing the river or arresting immigrants. Instead, Texas soldiers are relying on concertina wire installed up and down the river’s edge to prevent immigrants from entering the country.
Border Patrol agents whose job it is to apprehend immigrants who have illegally entered the country have relied for months on wire cutters to snap down the wire installation and arrest immigrants. The state is in a legal battle with the federal government over agents’ authority to cut the wire and make arrests.
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Abbott most recently stoked new anger among Democrats and the White House after his soldiers forbade Border Patrol from entering the enclosed area last Friday night, after the federal agents were notified by Mexican authorities that three immigrants had just drowned and two more people were struggling in the cold river to reach it to shore after trying to cross.
Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.