AG Carr Joins 27-State Coalition Supporting Texas Border Defense Barriers
Wednesday, January 31st, 2024
Attorney General Chris Carr has joined 26 states in sending a letter to the Biden administration supporting Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to secure the border.
“It’s the paramount duty of the federal government to secure our nation’s border and ports of entry, and anything less poses a significant risk to U.S. national security and overall public safety,” said Carr. “Unchecked immigration policies are a source for human trafficking, drug smuggling and other violent crime, and our states are now having to fill in the gap where the Biden administration has failed. Rather than standing in the way of states like Texas, the federal government must take action to address this growing crisis.”
Since President Biden took office, more than six million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border. In response, Texas built physical barriers, some of which are made with wire. In some places with the wire, illegal border crossings dropped by more than two-thirds.
Yet in just one month, Border Patrol cut holes in Texas’ border defense wires more than 20 times. In one case, Border Patrol used a forklift to raise the wire and usher in more than 300 people crossing the Rio Grande into Texas.
A recent order from the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal government to remove Texas’ wire, but it does not require the federal government to do so, and it also does not prohibit Texas from repairing or replacing the wire.
In the letter, the coalition demands that the Biden administration either enforce the law or allow states like Texas to take action themselves.
Along with Georgia, the following attorneys general also joined in signing the letter, as did the Arizona State Legislature: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.