Texas Gov. Greg Abbott weighs in on ongoing migrant crisis
EL PASO, Texas -- Days away from the expected end of Title 42, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in on the ongoing migrant crisis in the Southern border.
Gov. Abbott was a guest on ABC's "This Week" with Martha Raddatz Sunday morning.
"If the courts do not intervene and put a halt to the removal of Title 42, it's going to be total chaos," he said.
With thousands of asylum seekers coming into the United States, the governor said he is concerned about the health risk this could create.
"But some do come across with COVID and no one knows exactly who comes across with COVID. These people are not tested when they come across the border. And so who knows how many people have COVID? Who knows what other type of disease they may have? The answer is nobody knows because nobody is testing them," Abbott said.
The governor was also asked about his operation of busing migrants to other parts of the United States. Over 14,500 migrants have been bused to different cities including Philadelphia and New York.
He defended his decision.
"The real reason behind is because communities like Del Rio and Eagle Pass and others, they are having thousands of people dumped off into their communities, thousands of migrants dumped out of their communities. They don't have the capability of dealing with that vast number of migrants and remove them to locations that self-identified as sanctuary cities that have the capability and the desire to help out these migrants. And so that's exactly what's taking place," the governor said.
Meanwhile El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar also weighed in on the ongoing border crisis.
Rep. Escobar said she wants more robust support from the State department.
She said immigration is not just a border-only issue.
"Unfortunately, Congress has to act on changing our very outdated immigration laws for decades. The federal government under Congress' direction has addressed immigration as a border-only issue. We really have to kind of zoom out and recognize this is a Western Hemispheric refugee crisis of historic proportions," the representative said.
