Photo Credit: Ken Paxton / Facebook
By Bethany Blankley [The Center Square contributor] –
The ongoing illegal immigration crisis at the southern border, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says, is an opportunity for the nation to unite, because “we’re in the fight of our lives.”
Paxton is hosting a two-day border summit for 12 state attorneys general in McAllen, Edinburg, Weslaco and Rio Grande City on Thursday and Friday.
Some of the attorneys general already have been to the southern border, and this summit will be another opportunity for them to meet with law enforcement officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Texas AG said. They will participate in round table discussions, and take a border wall tour and a boat tour on the Rio Grande River.
Paxton has been at the forefront of fighting President Joe Biden over the border crisis, having sued the administration over it seven times.
“Biden’s disastrous immigration policies have wreaked havoc on our communities and placed a massive burden on our state and nation,” Paxton said. “I want to thank our local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, as well as my fellow attorneys general, for making this issue a top priority. Because of the scale of this crisis, the effects of unprecedented levels of illegal immigration are felt by all states. Violence, drugs, human trafficking, and unsustainable costs on our communities follow in the wake of wave upon wave of illegal immigration. My colleagues and I are meeting to discuss what else we can do to stop it.”
The attorneys general attending the border summit are from Arkansas, Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. All are Republicans.
Two of them attended a recent Texas Public Policy Foundation event in Austin to discuss actions they’ve taken against the Biden administration, why they’re supporting Paxton’s efforts, and how illegal immigration is impacting their states: Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
Rutledge argues that every area of life in Arkansas is being impacted by illegal immigration, especially with the amount of illicit fentanyl being trafficked north through Texas into Arkansas.
This impacts the state’s “overdose rates, it impacts our workforce, our education, our economy. Everything is negatively impacted because of the open border policies of the Biden administration,” she said. “But for the state of Texas using its resources and other states like those of Arkansas adding resources, we would not have as secure of a border as we have.”
Arkansas has successfully sued opioid manufacturers for their role in the drug crisis, she said, and the state’s put millions of dollars into education, awareness and law enforcement interdiction efforts. But “when you boil all the water out, we have to stop the influx of fentanyl and illegal drugs, even illegal prescription drugs from entering into our communities,” she said.
While Utah isn’t physically contiguous to the southern border with Texas, everything that Texas is dealing with, Reyes said, “is coming up to Utah. The amount of deaths we have to deal with are from fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs is increasing exponentially. There are enough drugs pouring in from the south to kill our entire nation many times over. It is that serious. It is that sobering.”
Reyes said he’s visiting Texas again “because we all have to be working on this because the open border policy that we have in the Biden administration is allowing drugs and human trafficking to proliferate” and is “a clear and present danger and epidemic in our nation.”
The AGs were part of a group of 16 that called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take measures against the Chinese and Mexican governments for their role in trafficking illicit drugs into the U.S.
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas maintains the southern border is secure and the Biden administration’s approach to immigration is more humane than the Trump administration’s.
Customs and Border Protections reports that its agents made nearly 2 million enforcement actions against illegal immigrants, including known criminals, since Biden took office. In his first year in office, Biden didn’t visit the southern border, or Texas. He hasn’t yet responded to requests made by Texas lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, to close the border, or from Republican governors to consider solutions they offered.
“We’re in a fight for our freedom, for our lives,” Paxton said. The 27 lawsuits his office filed against the Obama administration in his first 27 months “pales in comparison to what we’re fighting now. It’s twice as aggressive at least,” he says.
“There’s a complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution. There’s a complete disregard for federal law. There’s a disregard for state’s rights. There’s a disregard for even court orders that come from the U.S. Supreme Court. One example is the Remain in Mexico program where we have fought and won over and over all the way up to the Supreme Court. Then the Biden administration just ignores the court orders. And they implement it for just barely 200 people a month when we have nearly 200,000 coming across every month.”
Paxton says state attorneys general are going to play a crucial role and “if we’re not all standing up right now, I’m convinced that we are going to lose our country.”
Ahead of the two-day summit, attorneys general from across the country are sharing why border security is important for their states.
One of them, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, has expressed a sentiment other Republican AGs also share: “All states are border states” and all states are being impacted by President Joe Biden’s open border policies.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who’s attending the summit, told The Center Square, “The Biden administration’s many failures may have pushed the crisis at the southern border out of the headlines at liberal media outlets, but it’s far from over.
“President Biden’s failure to secure the border is harming Montana communities. Fentanyl and meth continue to flood across the border, making their way to our state, and bringing crime and death with them,” Knudsen added. “I’m grateful that Attorney General Paxton is hosting this summit and giving attorneys general the opportunity to see the crisis firsthand.”
Knudsen sued the administration with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich last year.
“Law enforcement officers in Montana are doing what they can to combat crime resulting from drugs trafficked across the southern border, but we’re fighting an uphill battle until the Biden administration does its job and enforces immigration laws,” he said.
The current catch and release policy, not deporting as many as are eligible under Title 42, changing Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation policies, and releasing “thousands of people into our communities with no consideration of their potential criminal history is a dangerous policy,” Knudsen said.
Montana – a border state with Canada – is not immune to Mexican cartels, Knudsen noted.
Montana Highway Patrol officials have warned the public about large-scale criminal networks bringing illegal drugs and weapons into the state, contributing to increased addiction and violence. Criminal investigations in Montana have found that methamphetamine and fentanyl are coming from Mexico.
The Montana Department of Justice announced arrests of Mexican cartel members smuggling drugs into the state or managing distribution points in major cities. Last year, two major Montana meth traffickers were charged for their involvement with a drug trafficking ring reportedly connected to the Sinaloa cartel.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said the six million people he represents are being negatively impacted by illegal border crossings. Coming to Texas isn’t the first time he’s been to the U.S.-Mexico border. Last year, he visited several locations “to get a firsthand look at the current state of the crisis” and collaborate with other attorneys general on proposed solutions, he said.
“Often, when government officials go to the southern border, we are shown all that is going right,” Rokita said. “But my experience at the Florida, Texas and Arizona borders, which I visited in late October, offered proof of all that is going wrong.”
Last August, Rokita filed an amicus brief joined by 14 other attorneys general in support of Texas and Missouri’s lawsuit to force the Biden administration to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas and Missouri. But since then, Paxton and Missouri AG Eric Schmitt, who’s also attending the border summit, say they’ve since had to take additional action to hold the administration accountable to reinstate the policy.
“Securing the southern border is critical to fighting human trafficking and stopping the deadly flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the interior,” Schmitt told The Center Square. “Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s weak border policies have led to record-high border crossings and enabled human traffickers and drug cartels to thrive, which affects Missouri and states all across the country.”
Texas and Missouri also sued the administration to require it to resume constructing the border wall using funds previously appropriated by Congress. A court hasn’t yet ruled on the case, but Schmitt said, “Missouri will continue to take concrete action to secure the border, even when the Biden administration won’t.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the agency was using the border wall funds for environmental and maintenance projects after halting all contracts and wall construction projects last year.
Arkansas AG Leslie Ruttledge, who’s also attending the border summit, told The Center Square, “We have seen the Biden Administration fail the American people by not taking control of the crisis at the border and it has impacted communities across our nation, including those in Arkansas. I want people to come to this great country in accordance with our laws and in the light of day, rather than running through the dead of night.”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who’ll also be attending the summit, and who’s sued the Biden administration over vaccine mandates, argues Biden’s failure to protect the southern border has led “to bigger problems in Mississippi, such as opioid deaths and human trafficking.”
“On issue after issue, President Biden has overreached his authority and misdirected federal resources to achieve an agenda that is in line with liberal special interests, but certainly not with the interests of the people of Mississippi,” she told The Center Square.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the agency was using the border wall funds for environmental and maintenance projects after halting all contracts and wall construction projects last year.
Arkansas AG Leslie Ruttledge, who’s also attending the border summit, told The Center Square, “We have seen the Biden Administration fail the American people by not taking control of the crisis at the border and it has impacted communities across our nation, including those in Arkansas. I want people to come to this great country in accordance with our laws and in the light of day, rather than running through the dead of night.”
At a recent event in Texas, Ruttledge highlighted how Biden’s open border policies are contributing to increased crime and drugs heading north through Texas into Arkansas. Reyes also said at the same event that everything Texas is dealing with “is coming up to Utah. The amount of deaths we have to deal with from fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs is increasing exponentially. There are enough drugs pouring in from the south to kill our entire nation many times over. It is that serious. It is that sobering.”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who’ll also be attending the summit, and who’s sued the Biden administration over vaccine mandates, argues Biden’s failure to protect the southern border has led “to bigger problems in Mississippi, such as opioid deaths and human trafficking.”
“On issue after issue, President Biden has overreached his authority and misdirected federal resources to achieve an agenda that is in line with liberal special interests, but certainly not with the interests of the people of Mississippi,” she told The Center Square.
About the Author: Bethany Blankley is a writer at the Center Square, Patheos/Hedgerow, political analyst and former press secretary at Capitol Hill / NY / WDC. Follow Bethany on Twitter @BethanyBlankley.
